God still speaks through dreams

When God first spoke to me in a dream, I wasn’t confused by what he said — his message was clear. What unsettled me was how he said it.

I’d never heard anyone talk about hearing God in dreams and visions. I’d never heard it in a sermon or read it in a book. When I told people about the dream, they rolled their eyes and changed the subject. Even my pastor called me strange.

Then I started re-reading my Bible — what I found left me stunned.

God’s forgotten language

Biblically, hearing from God in dreams and visions is entirely normal. These Spirit-inspired experiences communicate using the language of pictures and symbols, and they’re ubiquitous in scripture.

Scholars note that if you were to take out all the dreams and visions from scripture, you would remove more than one-third of its contents! While today we tend to distinguish dreams and visions by our level of consciousness – we “dream” while we’re asleep and have “visions” while we’re awake – the terms are used interchangeably in scripture, and from Genesis to Revelation, nearly every major figure receives divine guidance this way.

For a quick snapshot, there’s Abraham dreaming of a blazing torch passing through bloody animal parts, the symbols of ancient treaty-making (Genesis 15:1-20), Jacob seeing angels flying up and down a staircase initiating a life-changing decision (Genesis 28:10-22) and Gideon gaining military assurance through a vision of a speeding bread roll (Judges 7:9-14). There’s Joseph and Daniel, Jeremiah and Zechariah, Amos and Ezekiel, and the list continues.

Jesus dreamt

The New Testament proceeds in this pattern. Five dreams are present in the Christmas story, each one critical to Jesus’ survival. 

Jesus himself experiences several visions during his ministry – at his baptism (Luke 3:21-22), transfiguration (Luke 9:29-36) and when he sees Satan fall from heaven (Luke 10:17-20).

If you were to take out all the dreams and visions from Scripture, you would remove more than one-third of its contents!

After Jesus, dream-visions are seen as the primary mode of divine communication after the Spirit is poured out on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:16,17). Luke records 21 instances of visions and dreams in Acts, including Peter’s vision of unappetising food for the church (Acts 10:1-11:18), Stephen’s vision of his welcome into heaven (Acts 7:55-56), Ananias’ vision of healing for Paul’s blindness (Acts 9:10-18), and the apostle Paul’s revelation of travel directions for his next mission trip (Acts 16:9).

Later Paul’s experiences include visions of the third heaven where he heard “inexpressible things” (2 Corinthians 12:2-4) and who can forget that most detailed description of dream-visions in the book of Revelation, with scenes of a bloodstained lamb with seven horns (Revelation 5:6), saints wearing white robes that have been washed in blood (Revelation 7:14) and the drunken prostitute riding a scarlet beast (Revelation 17:1-7).

He is speaking. Are we listening?

Scripture clearly demonstrates dream-visions to be God’s favoured mode of communication - his modus operandi.

The question naturally arises then, why would God speak in this colourful but sometimes obscure way?

While scripture doesn’t give us explicit reasons, we do know that visual imagery is a powerful way to communicate. It has been estimated that at least 65 per cent of the population are visual learners. What’s more, neuroscientists tell us that imagery is more likely to stay with us than verbal messages. As a form of communication, dreams and visions leave a powerful impression on the brain often with long-lasting effects.

God is a masterful communicator. Not only does God know what to say and when to say it, God knows how to say it. Because of their multi-sensory nature, dream-visions awaken the imagination so that they are experienced as real. And in God’s eyes, they are.

God’s words have the power to create reality (Genesis 1:3). So, when the Spirit speaks in visionary ways, God is offering us the opportunity to see and then co-operate with the divine plan. Ultimately God speaks to be heard. Dreams and visions are his way of motivating us to respond. 

My lack of awareness about dreams and visions in my early years is true of the contemporary church – at least in the West. It has been said that dreams are “God’s forgotten language.” God continues to speak through dreams and visions, yet our rationalised Western mindset and limited understanding of symbolic language often prevent us from recognising his voice (Job 33:13).

Thus, the onus falls on us. The Spirit was poured out so we could hear God’s voice in visual ways (Acts 2:16,17). We must learn to recognise God’s favoured form of communication so that we can follow (John 10:27)

God Dreams: How to Hear God’s Voice in Dreams and Visions by Tania Harris (Authentic Media) is available now. Learn more at godconversations.com.