Prophetic Dreams From God

Sometimes God speaks through dreams. It is a kind of vision which usually happens at night. Normal people dream every night. Statistics show that every person dreams at least 4 dreams on average per night without remembering most of them. Most of the dreams are simple meaningless dream due to our activities in day time. In Ecclesiastes 5:3 "For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words." Some dreams are induced by external stimulations like sound and light.

In Deuteronomy, God commanded the Israelites that if any dreamers give a sign and the sign came to pass, but if he by this suggests anyone to leave God and worship other gods, they must stone him to death without mercy. These dreams are obviously from evil spirits. The devil is always trying to seduce people to leave God. Wise men would always be ware and praying, opposing the devil with strong faith and the sword of the Spirit, truth.

It is biblical that God speaks with dreams and visions. Examples from both the Old Testament and the New Testament clearly illustrate the fact. King Solomon dreamed that God were there to give him anything he asked for. He then asked for wisdom to manage the nation. God was well pleased and gave him unprecedented prosperity. In the book of revelations, a large part of the visions may have come from Apostle John's dream.

Why does God speak through dreams? The only thing we are sure is that He does it out of His loving kindness and His good wills. In the bible, we see dreams that are so influential that it affected the whole nation and hence the generations to come. After the Holy Spirit inspired 66 books were canonized, we see no more dreams like that. Divine dreams are for the good of personal growth and the salvation of souls. We saw examples where people who live in countries that are not reached by missionaries met Jesus in dreams and became Christians. It is important that no one should seek for revelational dreams because none of the dreamers in the Bible asked for it. Holy Spirit would give revelation in His own will.

As described in the book of Daniel, some divine dreams are revelations about God's future plan. He does it in mercy and love to make people watchful for the things to come. Some stubborn men also received warning from God in dreams. This is also an expression of His loving kindness because the men is stopped from sinning and being judged.

It must be clear that any kind of special revelation that are received by anyone today must be override the authority of the canonized Bible. People must not despise prophetic messages but test them with truth. Therefore, rather than chasing after prophetic experiences, believers are reminded to spend time praying and studying the Bible in the guidance of the Holy Spirit.