Dreams From God
How to Know if Your Dream Is
From God, the Enemy or Your Own Soul
JOHN E.
THOMAS
Whether
you know Jesus personally or not, your dreams will emanate from one of those
three sources: the enemy, your soul or God. (Pexels)
How do you know if your dream is from God?
I've been studying
dreams and teaching people how to interpret them for nearly 20 years, and that
is the question I am asked most often: "How
do I know if a dream is from God?"
I'll do my best to
answer that question in this post and the next. The full teaching on this topic
would take an entire book, so we'll just be scratching the surface here.
Let's start off by looking at the possible
sources of dreams.
3
Different Sources of Dreams
Tertullian (AD
160–225) taught that dreams come from three sources.
Some dreams are demonically inspired. Some
come from our souls with the soul actually causing the dream to be
dreamed, and some are dreams from God.
He linked this understanding to the promise
of Acts 2 - that dreams, visions and prophetic encounters would be the norm for
the church.
Whether you know
Jesus personally or not, your dreams will emanate from one of those three
sources: the enemy, your soul or God.
How can you tell which source the dream is
coming from?
Dreams
From the Enemy
Dreams from the
enemy are often nightmares.
The enemy desires to produce fear in us so
we will not walk in faith.
He frequently aims this kind of attack at
young children, and when this occurs, the answer is not to tell them to ignore
their dreams because they "aren't
real" - but to teach them their authority in Christ.
Help your children trust in God instead of
running in fear.
Sometimes dreams
from the enemy are actually demonic visitations.
For instance, sleep paralysis is a common
phenomenon people talk about both in and outside the church.
It most often occurs when a demonic entity
visits someone as he sleeps.
Dreams from the enemy tend to linger even
after we awake, along with the intense sense of fear or evil presence we felt
during the dream.
Another kind of
dream from the enemy is called a dark dream.
The Bible often contrasts God and Satan by
using words like light and dark, day and night.
When God's throne or heaven is mentioned,
the most common features are radiant colors and bright light.
Similar descriptions are often true of
dreams from God, while dreams from the enemy are usually set at night, have low
light or are in black and white.
How
to Deal With Dreams From the Enemy
The key to dealing
with a dream from the enemy is to ask God a simple question: "Is there an open door in my life the
enemy is accessing?"
This open door can
come in three ways: your past, your media choices or your spiritual activity.
Once you find the door the enemy is using,
you can close it, and these dreams will often stop.
I have seen many people set free from
dreams from the enemy as they closed these doors - myself included.
Dreams
From the Soul
A young lady once
told me a dream in which her boyfriend proposed to her.
I felt something was "off" in the
dream and knew it wasn't from God, but I also knew it wasn't from the enemy.
I asked her if they had been together for a
while and if she thought it was past time for them to be engaged.
She confirmed both of these things were
true. The source of the dream became apparent to me, and I gently told her she
wanted to be married so much that she had caused herself to dream about it.
The most common
soul dreams involve a coming marriage, promotion, ministry or season of
popularity.
When we interpret dreams at film and music
festivals, it is amazing how many musicians tell us dreams in which they are
finally discovered!
The prophet
Jeremiah warned about dreamers who dreamed dreams they caused themselves to
dream (Jeremiah
29:8–9).
Not all soul dreams come because someone is
a false prophet, like the people Jeremiah was condemning, sometimes we just
desire something so strongly that we dream about it.
How
to Deal With Dreams From the Soul
The key to
recognizing most soul dreams is another simple question: "Does it feel familiar?"
Did you already know that, expect that,
feel that or think that?
The familiarity of the dream's story or
concept is often a clue to its source. Not always, but often.
You can also test
the dream's fruit. A dream from God will produce good fruit in your life, while
a dream filled with earthly wisdom will produce bad fruit:
"But if you
have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, do not boast and do not lie
against the truth. This wisdom descends not from above, but is earthly,
unspiritual, and devilish. For where there is envying and strife, there is
confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure,
then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, without
partiality, and without hypocrisy " (James 3:14–17).
Those are the three
sources of dreams: the enemy, the soul and God.
Are you struggling with a big
decision or wondering how your eternal future will play out?
Why not talk to the God of
the universe and let Him work in your behalf?
He says, “I will instruct you and teach you the way
you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you" (Psalm 32:8).
Ask God to show you what to
do. Pray the following prayer:
“Heavenly
Father,
I admit that I am a
sinner and my sins have separated me from You. I now want to turn away from my
past sinful life and begin a new life with You. I receive Your free gift of
salvation.
Please forgive me. I now
receive your Son, Jesus Christ as my Savior, my Master and my Lord. I believe
and confess that Jesus Christ died for my sins, was buried, and rose from the
dead.
I want to receive all
that Jesus Christ has provided for me as my Savior. Your Word says, ‘Whosoever shall call on the name of the
Lord shall be saved’ (Romans 10:13).
I believe and confess
that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no man comes unto
the Father, but by Him.
Lord Jesus, I pray and
ask You, to come into my heart and be Lord of my life. I thank You that you
have given me eternal life, and according to Your Word, I am born again and I
am now a child of God.
Heavenly Father, thank You
for the gift of the Holy Spirit Who is in me now to help me do Your will for
the rest of my life. I surrender my life to You. I promise to study Your Word –
the Bible.
Use me for Your glory.
In Jesus’ Name. Amen.”
If you have just put your
trust in Jesus Christ, you have been born into God’s family.
As a spiritual baby, you need
to grow by feeding on God’s Word – the Bible (1 Peter 2:2).
You must have a good modern
translation Bible and begin prayerfully reading it. Start in the New Testament,
such as the Gospel of John or Paul’s letters to the Ephesians.
As you read, ask two
questions: “What are You, Lord?” “What do
You want me to do?”
Also, you need to join a
Christian fellowship where the Bible is taught and where God is truly
worshiped.
God bless you as you begin
your new life with Him!
John E. Thomas is
the president of Streams Ministries and the co-author of The
Art of Praying the Scriptures: A Fresh Look at Lectio Divina with John Paul Jackson. Teaching on prophetic ministry,
dream interpretation and the kingdom of God, he travels internationally and
works to help restore the awe of God to a world that has lost its wonder. John
and his wife, Dawna, live outside of Dallas, Texas.
To learn more about dreams and dream
interpretation, check out Dream Foundations as well as other resources from
John E. Thomas and John Paul Jackson atstreamsministries.com.
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