God has chosen to communicate with mankind through dreams. He guides
and counsels us through our dreams. He establishes covenants with us
through our dreams. He grants us gifts in our dreams. He utilized
dreams from Genesis to Revelation, and declared that He would
continue to use them in the last days. When you total up all dreams
and visions in the Bible, and all the stories and actions which come
out of these dreams and visions, you have about one-third of the
Bible, which is equal to the size of the New Testament! Dreams are a
central way God has chosen to communicate with us, and thus they must
be given great weight!
Five Things You Can Do to Help Recall Your Dreams
Say to yourself, "I believe dreams contain a valid message."
This is a signal to your heart that you are taking it seriously and
want to hear what it has to tell you. You are giving it permission,
and even asking it to awaken you after each dream. Your heart will do
exactly that. You see, if you do not awaken within five minutes of
the dream ending, you will not recall it. If, however, you
tell your heart that dreams are leftover undigested pizza, then you
heart lets you sleep through the dream and doesn't awaken you after
it is over, and thus you do not recall it.
Ask God to speak to you through dreams as you fall asleep.
God does answer prayers, especially when prayed in accordance to His
will!
Put your journal beside your bed and immediately record your dreams
upon awakening.
You will forget most of your dreams by the morning, so get up and
write them down when you awaken.
Get eight hours of sleep, as the entire last hour will be dream-time.
Awaken naturally, without the use of an alarm clock, as alarms
shatter dream recall and blast tidbits of dreams into oblivion where
they are never found.
If you will do the above five things, you will recall dreams every
week.
Seven Foundational Principles for Interpreting Dreams
Most dreams are symbolic (including biblical dreams), so view them
the same way you would view a political cartoon. Throw the switch in
your brain that says, "Look at this symbolically."
You can learn the art of communicating symbolically by playing the
game "Pictionary" or "Bible Pictionary."
The symbols will come from the dreamer's life, so ask, "What does
this symbol mean to me?" or, if working on another's dream,
ask, "What does this symbol mean to you?"
For example, Joseph was a shepherd, and he dreamed of sheaves and
sun, moon and stars bowing down (Gen. 37:1-11). These images surround
a shepherd boy who lives in the fields. Nebuchadnezzar, a king,
dreamed of statues of gold (Dan 2:31ff), which surround kings who
live in palaces.
The dream generally speaks of the concerns which your heart is
currently facing. So ask, "What issues was I processing the day
before I had the dream?"
For example, Paul was wondering where to go next on his missionary
journey and had a dream of a Macedonian man motioning for him to come
on over (Acts 16:6-11). Nebuchadnezzar was thinking his kingdom would
go on forever (Dan. 4:28-33) and he had a dream of a tree being
chopped off at the roots (Dan. 4:9-27). Once you know the thoughts
that were on the dreamer's heart when he fell asleep, it is much
easier to draw out the meaning of the dream.
The meaning of the dream must be drawn from the dreamer. Realize you
know nothing about the dream, but through dependence upon the Holy
Spirit and the skillful use of questions, you can draw the meaning of
the dream out from the heart of the dreamer.
As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all
learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and
dreams (Dan. 1:17).
Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of
understanding will draw it out (Prov. 20:5).
The dreamer's heart will leap and "witness" and say, "Aha!" when it
hears the right interpretation, so never accept an interpretation
that does not bear witness in the dreamer's heart.
Dreams reveal but do not condemn. Their goal is to preserve life, not
to destroy it (Job 33:13-18).
Never make a major decision in your life based only on a dream
without receiving additional confirmation from the other ways that
God speaks to us and guides us (peace in our hearts, the counsel of
others, illumined Scriptures, God's still small voice, prophecy,
anointed reasoning, etc.).
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