INTRODUCTION
Dreams are the brain’s way of processing the information generated or received in our spirits and that which was stored in our memory as recorded from the day's events. Regardless of the source, dreams usually bring to our awareness things our spirit has been trying to communicate to our brain during the day without success. In answering the question: 'Does every dream have a meaning; it becomes clear that we need to first understand the types of dreams people have and how their meanings apply to our lives – for not all dreams are the same. These dream types are grouped according to their three sources, two being spiritual dreams, and one is simply mental.SPIRITUAL DREAMS
· a) God and His holy angels; and
· b) Satan with his fallen angels and demons.
A: GODLY DREAMS
Godly dreams come from God. God is deeply personal and longs to have a personal relationship with us based on two-way communication. Most believers know prayer as speaking to God, but are not aware that God speaks back. Because of this ignorance, most of God's messages come to us while we are sleeping.
The story of the birth of Christ contains five different Godly dreams without which the baby Jesus would have been murdered if people had not listened to them (Matthew 1-2). God speaks to us through dreams. Godly dreams are different kinds of dreams with messages from God directly or indirectly through the ministry of His holy angels.
Job 33:14-18 (BBE) says, “For God gives his word in one way, even in two, and man is not conscious of it: In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep comes on men, while they take their rest on their beds; Then he makes his secrets clear to men, so that they are full of fear at what they see; In order that man may be turned from his evil works, and that pride may be taken away from him; To keep back his soul from the underworld, and his life from destruction.”
The four main types of Godly
dreams are prophetic, symbolic, teaching and warning dreams. In real life a Godly dream may have a mixture of any or all of these four types without being restricted to one type.
a) PROPHETIC DREAMS
Prophetic dreams are those which are revelations of future events. They may come with instructions related to the events or may just be informative. Prophetic people tend to have prophetic dreams regularly, they are dreamers of dreams.
Num 12:6 says, “And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.”
Act 2:17 says, "And it shall be in the last days, says God, I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.”
Pharaoh’s dream which was
interpreted by Joseph of seven years of abundance and of another seven years of
famine is a prophetic dream, in the sense that it pointed to the future. These
dreams usually have a simple, direct message and clear meaning, unless if they are symbolic.
It is a very dangerous thing to lie about having a prophetic dream. Although God reveals His plans in dreams to some people, He also gives strong warnings against those who would falsely claim to have prophetic dreams. In the Law, if a prophet or a dreamer of dreams claimed to have a message from God through a dream, but then, even if what he'd said came to pass, called the people to worship other gods, he was to be put to death.
Deuteronomy 13:1–5 says, "If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you have not known—‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall put away the evil from your midst."
If a prophet claimed to speak on God’s behalf but it was not actually from God, proven by the fact that what he said did not come true, that prophet was to be put to death.
Deuteronomy 18:20–22 says, "But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him."
Prophetic dreams are not the standard for bible doctrine in the church, but should rather be weighed and tested against the scriptures.
2 Peter 1:19–21 says, "We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."
2 Timothy 3:16–17 says, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
We need not seek after prophetic dreams to hear from God. The written Word of God which has been provided through the agency of the inspired apostles and prophets, is our rule for faith and practice.
b) SYMBOLIC DREAMS
Symbolic dreams are spiritual riddles in dreams by which real people and situations in life are represented by symbolic characters.
Num 12:6-8 (NET) says, "The LORD said, “Hear now my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known to him in a vision; I will speak with him in a dream. My servant Moses is not like this; he is faithful in all my house. With him I will speak face to face, openly, and not in riddles; and he will see the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”
A riddle or parable is a symbolic story used to explain a truth. Daniel’s dream of four beasts representing four kingdoms is one such example. God spoke to prophets through symbolic dreams, especially Daniel (Daniel 1:17). King Nebuchadnezzar demanded that his wise men reveal both his dream and the meaning. The king’s dream was of the statue of a man with a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, body and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet of iron and clay.
A stone cut without human hands then struck the feet of the statue, and the statue crumbled, but the stone became a mighty mountain. Daniel interpreted that the different parts of the statue were different earthly kingdoms that would come into power, making this dream a far-reaching prophecy. The gold head was Babylon, the silver chest and arms were Medo-Persia, the thighs were Greece, and the legs were Rome.
The feet were not yet revealed, but it is the coming Beast Empire in which human bodies represented by clay, and the technological mark of the beast drawn from the DNA of satan and his fallen angels represented by iron; and the ten toes match to the ten horns and kingdoms in Daniel 7 and Revelation 13. This final worldwide kingdom will be ruled by the Antichrist. The stone that destroys all the kingdoms and fills the earth in the dream, is the kingdom of God, established when Jesus shall return to reign over all the earth for a thousand years and later forever.
The Holy Spirit usually gives the revelation of such a symbolic dream within the dream or just afterwards. Sometimes such dreams cut before they are over especially when you are interrupted by an alarm or someone waking you up, but usually God will continue with the dream in your next sleep.
You may have to ask the Lord to continue with an interrupted or incomplete dream to get the full message. Without the interpretation a symbolic dream makes one restless, and I say the one who has it must pray for the interpretation.
As I was growing up in the Lord, I would dream of myself praying for a demonized person and I would struggle to cast out the demon from the person every time I had gone low in my prayer life. This symbolic dream served as my wake-up call from God challenging me to a time of intensified prayer and fasting ahead of a spiritual battle.
c) TEACHING DREAMS
Teaching dreams are ones in which God gives a person a new teaching different to what he/she believes, and they usually come in deep trances. Peter’s trance dream in which he was instructed to preach the gospel to Gentiles whom he previously considered unclean is one good example.
Act 10:9-16 (ESV) says, "The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven."
Teachings dreams will come with a clear meaning
even when they are of a symbolic nature. I normally have such teaching dreams through trances whenever God is
teaching me a new truth to which I have had a different view. Other times I have received a teaching through a dream to strengthen my conviction on a truth or subject I was not very sure of, usually to more popular doctrines to the contrary.
d) WARNING DREAMS
Warning dreams are those in which God is warning us of danger ahead, usually because of a bad behavior we are doing which must be stopped to avoid the danger, or because of a person/people secretly working against us – who must be avoided. Joseph, Jesus’ father, saw an angel in a dream who warned him to flee to Egypt before Herod could take the life of his son. This dream served as a warning.
Mat 2:13 says, "And when they had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise and take the young child and His mother and flee into Egypt. And be there until I bring you word, for Herod is about to seek the child to destroy Him."
Warning dreams tend to be revealing and informative about the secret nature and thoughts of other people, whether good or bad. When other people have a bad attitude or intention towards us, the warning in the dream is so that we may avoid them and escape their evils.
When other people have a good attitude or intention towards us, the warning in the dream is so that we may not avoid them, or avoid hurting them, and benefit from their good character.
When Jesus stood at trial with Pontius Pilate, Pilate's wife warns her husband against having anything to do with Christ, because she knew of his innocence the a warning dream that informed her about the true nature of Jesus.
Mat 27:17-19 says, "Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said to them, Whom do you desire that I release to you? Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ? For he knew they had delivered Him because of envy. But as he was sitting down on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, Have nothing to do with that just man, for today because of Him I have suffered many things in a dream."
You’ll easily identify Godly dreams because they always contain supernatural information and wisdom beyond your knowledge. Godly dreams always bring hope, joy, peace and love in every situation. They are consistent with God's character as fully revealed in Jesus who came to give us life to the full (John 10:10). God speaks to people regardless of whether they believers or not, to reveal Himself to all.
B: SATANIC DREAMS
These are dreams with messages from the devil and His fallen angels, and demons. When Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, the devil was able to produce a vision of the future.
Luk 4:5 says, “Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.”
Note that the devil was able in some way to give Jesus a vision of all world kingdoms. Satanic dreams are scary and/or deceiving, and they are meant to bring evil in our lives. Scary dreams are what people call nightmares, and you feel relieved to wake up from them.
They are more or less of what you see in horror movies, which I discourage believers from watching. Messages from such nightmares should be rejected, reversed and challenged based on the Word of God! I used to have them when I was a baby in Christ, but when I became a man in 1998 I stopped satan from sending me his scary dreams. I have NEVER had a nightmare ever since!
Some satanic dreams are not scary but deceiving, especially when he wants to use a person to do his evil works. Many people dream eating good food but in the end the results are disastrous.
Eating in satanic dreams is a sign that you are under a witchcraft attack, and you need to be prayed for by an anointed minister of Christ to reverse it. Witches usually give Christians food sacrificed to devils in dreams in order to attack them.
1Co 10:20-21 (ESV) says, “No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.”
Some people dream of mermaids and/or mermen giving them seemingly good advice and taking them into the underworld. Mermaids and mermen are marine creatures with the head and upper body of a human and the tail of a fish.
Mermaids are female and mermen are male. They are associated with terrifying events such as floods, storms, shipwrecks, and drownings. Sometimes they can be caring or generous, giving things or falling in love with humans.
Mermaids and mermen are a special type of demons which existed from the time of Noah’s flood when the fallen angels took advantage of the bodies of the dying fish and magically combined them with bodies of the dying humans in order to survive the flood.
A merman called Dagon, the fish-god of the Philistines (Palestinians), is mentioned in the Bible in at least 8 places (Joshua 19:27, Judges 16:23, 1 Samuel 5:2,3,4,5 & 7, & 1 Chronicles 10:10).
As it was a rule in all idolatrous religions that the high priest should wear the insignia of the god that he worshipped, the sculptures discovered by Layard show that the priests of Dagon were dressed in clothing resembling fish. These were probably the ‘strange garments’ referred to in Zephaniah 1:8.
In the image of Dagon the head of the man appeared under the head of the fish, while in the case of the priests, the head of the fish formed a mitre above that of the man, while its scaly, fan-like tail fell as a cloak behind, leaving the human limbs and feet exposed (Babylon and Nineveh, p. 343).
Dagon was called Oannes, the Lord of the waves, in the ancient legends of the Babylonians. He was amphibious, having the torso and head of a man but upon his head was the head of a fish with gaping mouth and draping downward were the back of the fish, complete with scales and tail.
The Sumerians called him “Ea” and like Oannes, he was half fish and half man. He was called the great fish of heaven. The Philistines called him Dagon. According to Hislop, there are strong evidences that Dagon was Nimrod, all scholars agree that the name and worship of Dagon were imported from Babylonia (The Two Babylons, p. 215).
According to Egyptian mythology, when the judges found Osiris (Nimrod) guilty of corrupting the religion of Adam and cut up his body, they threw the parts into the Nile. It was said that a fish ate one of these chunks and became transformed.
Later, Isis (Semiramis) was fishing along the river bank when she fished up a half-man, half-fish. This sea creature was Dagon, the reincarnated Nimrod. And Dagon is the representation of Nimrod (of ancient Babylon) resurrecting out of the ocean depths as a half-man, half-fish.
Dagon is the derived from dag (fish). Pictures of the ancient Philistine god Dagon show that he was a merman. Historically it is said that Dagon was a god of fertility, representing wheat and fish which both multiply quickly.
Dagon is also mentioned in 1 Samuel 5 when the Ark of the Covenant was taken by the Philistines, and God showed His power to the Philistines by destroying their fish god.
So, we do see that mermaids and mermen are evil spirits which cannot coexist with the Holy Spirit in the bible. Marine spirits from the marine kingdom are popular for recruiting people into witchcraft and Satanism through dreams. A believer must not entertain such creatures even in dreams, regardless how good they may appear or sound.
All satanic dreams must be rejected despite their nature and meaning. If we are experiencing satanic dreams, it means the enemy has a legal right to communicate his will to us. We need to ask the Holy Spirit to help us identify the grounds on which the enemy is getting in. The common grounds on which the enemy gains access are:
• Unforgiveness related to some form of abuse or trauma. People with a trauma will have a repeated dream on the event on which their mind is fixated. This door needs to be closed by forgiveness (Mat 18:21-35).
• Rebellion and unconfessed sin. People with an unconfessed sin have an open door through which satan can attack. Many people are attacked by seducing demons in dreams due to watching pornography, and are ashamed to confess their lustful sins. You need to find a mature minister of the gospel (of the same sex with you), and confess your sins to break that evil cycle.
1Ti 4:1 says, “But the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and teachings of demons.”
Jas 1:13-14 says, “Let no one being tempted say, I am tempted from God. For God is not tempted by evils, and He tempts no one. But each one is tempted by his lusts, being drawn away and seduced by them.”
1Jn 2:16 says, “Because all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.”
• Witchcraft and divination. If you visit or receive anything from a witchdoctor, spiritualist, or false prophets, you have opened a door for spiritual attack. Saul the king of Israel attracted an evil spirit by consulting witches.
• If there is a foundation of idolatry which still stands in your family, familiar spirits will appear in your dreams even after being saved. This is why a believer should not participate in traditional family rituals such as ‘kurova guva’ (grave rite) which invite demons in their lives. Family idols and their foundations must be destroyed with the guidance of an anointed minister of Christ.
• Strongholds: Rebellious mental attitudes contrary to the Word of God like anger and fear, attract satanic dreams. Do not fear! Believers should not sleep angry so as not to give satan an opportunity to attack at night.
Mat 14:27 says, “But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, Be of good cheer, I AM! Do not fear.”
Eph 4:26-27 says, “Be angry, and do not sin. Do not let the
sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the Devil.”
NON-SPIRITUAL DREAMS
Non-spiritual dreams come
from the mind.
3: MENTAL DREAMS
Most Christians make wrong decisions and suffer negative effects by confusing mental dreams with the spiritual dreams from God. As you go about your lives events, you capture in your mind consciously or subconsciously a lot of information. This information gets stored in your memory. At night while you sleep these events play out in your mind.
Ecc 5:3 (CEV) says, “If you keep thinking about something, you will dream about it...”
Mental dreams are natural and mean no good or harm. You can dream about a good time you had with a friend or a long time memory. Mental dreams include fantasies in which you will experience the blissful life of your imaginations, only to be interrupted by the harsh realities of your life when you wake up.
Most of our dreams come from ourselves. They are a picture of what is going on beneath the surface of our waking life. This is why counsellors and psychologists often engage in dreamwork with their clients. Like shadows reflecting a reality we don’t always see, mental dreams tell us about our hidden selves. Usually they speak in a symbolic language that draws on the images we use in our everyday lives.
So we may dream of turning up naked to an examination when we feel unprepared and nervous about a job interview scheduled for the next day. These are all natural dreams. They contain messages from ourselves. With its in-built healing system, the brain uses dreaming to process the everyday happenings of our lives. It’s a little like housecleaning for the mind. Humans need to dream.
Researchers have found that if you try to stop a person dreaming, they show signs of mental illness. These natural dreams offer much more to us than just housecleaning. They can be a powerful tool for self-awareness.
We are not always aware of what is going on beneath the surface, but our mental dreams show the way. These dreams do not carry any special meaning or effect on reality, and there is no need to worry about them. The only thing you need to do is to wake up from such.
Isa 29:8 (BBE) says, “And it will be like a man desiring food, and dreaming that he is feasting; but when he is awake there is nothing in his mouth: or like a man in need of water, dreaming that he is drinking; but when he is awake he is feeble and his soul is full of desire...”
Leave a comment and share what you have learned, or further insights, or ask questions about what you may need further clarity on
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