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| Are there any Esthers out there in this crucial time? |
Dreamers And Dream
Interpretations
Where Are the Josephs, Daniels and Esthers for Our
Day?
JAMES
W. GOLL
When
traveling by train from the Frankfurt, Germany region to Rossenheim in southern
Bavaria in the middle of the night, I kept hearing the Holy Spirit speak to me
over and over, "Where are the
Daniels, the Josephs and the Esthers?"
As I have pondered deeply on
this word for years, I believe the Holy Spirit is searching.
Yes, He is on a quest to find
believers who dream dreams at any cost, have a discerning spirit to properly
interpret the times, and who learn to intercede out of a posture of revelation.
Where are the Josephs and
Daniels for this generation?
Perhaps some of them are
those reading this message studying to show yourself approved as a workman for
God.
Interpretations
Belong to God
1. From the life of Joseph (Genesis 40:8)
- "And
they said to him, 'We have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter for
it.' Then Joseph said to them, 'Do not interpretations belong to God?
Please tell them to me.'”
2. From the Life of Daniel (Daniel 1:17, 20) - "As
for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and skill in every branch of learning and wisdom.
And Daniel had understanding in all kinds
of visions and dreams ... In all matters of wisdom and
understanding which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better
than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm."
3. From the Life of Issachar (1 Chronicles 12:32) - "From the sons of Issachar, those
having understanding of times and what Israel should do: two hundred of their
captains with all their brothers at their command."
4. First Corinthians 12: 7, 8—"But the manifestation of the Spirit
is given to everyone for the common good ... To one is given by the Spirit the
word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit."
5. Summation—What
God did before, He wants to do again!
Basic Points for Interpreting Dreams
Revelation Is Full of
Symbolism
As
dreams, visions and revelations are full of symbolism, they need to be viewed
much the same as parables. Ask the Lord to show you the central issue.
When dreams, etc. are broken
down into too many details, the meaning becomes increasingly obscure. Frame it
out like a giant jigsaw puzzle and the rest of the pieces will fall into place
and the picture will be seen.
Dreams are the often language
of emotions and therefore contain much symbolism.
We must learn to take our
interpretations first from Scripture, and then from our own life.
How God spoke in Genesis will
be similar to the symbols and types in the book of Revelation. This holds true
in our own lives as well.
Three Realms for
Interpretation of Symbols
The
first place to look is in Scripture. The Bible is full of parables and
allegories from which to draw types, shadows and symbols.
Examples like the mustard
seed being faith; incense being the prayers of the saints, seed representing
the "Word of God" and the candlesticks being the church.
Second, dream symbols
are often colloquial expressions which fill our memory bank.
They become turned into
pictorial language by the Holy Spirit. God takes the "sayings and
idioms" and uses them to speak spiritual truth.
An example is Gideon in
Judges 7:9 -15, where a barley cake appears. Gideon grew up as a thresher of
wheat and barley.
The barley cake therefore was
a symbol from his colloquial spiritual alphabet with distinct meaning to him.
The third realm of symbols
comes from our own personal revelatory alphabet.
In this case, the object or
symbol does not mean the same to you as it would to others. Every believer has
a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit.
So the Holy Spirit also has a
personal relationship with you and He will speak to you out of symbols from
your own very life.
Major Points for Greater Understanding
Reduce the Dream to Its
Simplest Form
1. With too much detail you
will lose the interpretation. Keep
it simple - with too much detail and you will obscure the meaning - take the
dream to the simplest form and build on that.
2. Context determines
interpretation. The
meaning is not always the same. An example: a seed can mean
faith, the Word, the kingdom of God, a future harvest and so on.
There are no formulas - 1 Corinthians 2 - the things of the spirit are
spiritually discerned, not naturally discerned.
3. Scenes of dreams or
repetitious dreams. Is it
four dreams or is it different aspects of the same issue? More than one dream
in the same night is often a different look or version of the same message.
4. The
First Questions to Ask
a. Are you observing? Where are you in the
dream? If you are in the observation mode, then the dream is not about you. It
is about someone or somewhere else. God does nothing without a witness
observing issues.
b. Are you participating? Are you participating
but still not the main figure? This dream is not about you as the center
figure, but includes you.
c. Are you the focus? Is everyone watching
you? First—where am I located in the encounter?
5. What are the objects,
thoughts and emotions in the dream? Are
there words in the dream? What impressions and thoughts are you left with when
you are awakened or recall the dream? What is the intensity of the dream - the
main emotion? You will know intuitively what are more important issues.
6. The cultural interpretive process. West vs. East—North vs. South There
are cultural and social interpretations that must also be brought into our
understanding. It depends on the sphere of one's influence how much they must
consider these things.
7. Meditating on the Laws of God. Read Psalms
63:6, 77:12, 119:15, 143:5. We must gain understanding of the principles or
metaphors of Scripture—meditate on them day and night. They can have layers of
meaning!
Keeping
Interpretation Simple
Summary
of Things to Remember
1. Most
of all, dreams should be interpreted on a personal basis first (John
10:3).
2. Most
dreams should not be taken literally. They need interpretation (Daniel
1:17; Genesis 40:8).
3. God
will use familiar terms you know (Matthew 4:19).
4.
Ponder on the dream or revelation and ask the Holy Spirit for insight (Daniel
7:8; 8:15-16; Luke 2:19; 1 Corinthians 2:10-12).
5. Ask
the Holy Spirit what the certain thought, word or issue is in the revelation.
Reduce the dream to its simplest form. What is the main thought? What object or
thought occurs most often? Frame it out like a giant jigsaw puzzle. Once you
get the frame, the rest of it will fit together.
6.
Search it out in the Word. Dreams from the Lord will never go against His word
(Proverbs 25:2).
7. What
did you sense and feel from the dream? Was it a good or evil presence, fear,
love, concern, hopelessness, disappointment? What was the primary emotion?
8.
Relate the dreams to your circumstances and spheres of influence.
9.
Consecutive dreams often have the same or similar meaning (Genesis
41:1-7; 25-31). God will speak the same message more than once.
10. Interpretations
can be three levels
o Personal
o Church—Congregation; city church; church in a nation;
global body of Christ
o National and international, these can be governmental in
nature.
11. More
than one interpretation can come forth from one dream. Just as with Scripture,
there is the historical context as well as the personal, present implication.
So it is with dreams, etc. It might be a general word for the church with
specific applications for yourself (or others).
12. Some
dreams may only be understood in the future. They unfold over time. Details
will make sense down the road.
13.
Write down the summary, date it, where you were, the time if you woke up from
it, the main emotions and a possible interpretation in a journal.
14. The
key to proper interpretation is question, question, question. See Zechariah 4
as an example of "how to respond" to a revelatory experience.
Humility is marked by being teachable.
Life
Is More Than Dreams!
"If we idolize that primary mental image and cling to it
too tenaciously, we may well despise the realization of the dream when it
finally arrives. An overly cherished fantasy has the capacity to steal our joy
and even blind us to the dream for which we have longed." — Mark
Rutland from Dreams, page 38.
Ecclesiastes
5:7 says not to base your life on dreams alone, "for when there is an
abundance of dreams and futilities, then words increase too. Therefore it is
God you should fear."
May dreams be multiplied unto
You!
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