THE LIFESTYLE OF A DREAMER: AWAKEN THE DREAMER IN YOU (2)

 ‘What to Do When You Have a Dream?’

I often get this question from the many conversations I have had with people about God and how He speaks in dreams. Most of the times both believers and non-believers alike always ask;

“I have all these dreams and I just don’t know what to do with them?”

Sounds like me about a decade ago when all of a sudden I was having dream after dream, night in night out. To be honest I didn’t like dreams. Especially that they always seemed to be like some puzzle, and always left me saying what was that I saw in my dream?

Thankfully enough I had mentors who taught me how to wait on God, and listen to His voice and instruction. One thing I can take from all of that was it grew my passion and intimacy with God through His Word. In this blog post, I will share a bit on what to do when you have a dream. I hope it helps someone who has this question every time they wake up in the morning.

Help I’m confused I don’t understand my dream at all!

So you had a wonderful restful night but soon as you wake up, you’re like wait a minute…I just had the most puzzling and confusing dream. The more you try to think about it, the more its gets puzzling. This is true for most of us, and when this happens we end up getting frustrated and throwing away our dreams.

This should not be the case, instead of trashing our dreams, we should treasure our dreams. I love this portion of scripture in Deuteronomy 29:29;

“The LORD our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions.” (NLT)

Oh man, isn’t this wonderful! We are accountable forever for all that God has revealed to us, that we may obey His instruction. In our daily walk with God, He constantly leads, directs us by His written Word (Logos) and His Holy Spirit (Rhema). One way the Holy Spirit brings the Word to life is through a dream. A dream therefore is one of God’s revelatory ways of giving his instruction to us. The Holy Spirit is a playwright par excellence. He wants to direct your life story. He creates dramatic events in your dreams which are personal and relevant to your waking world. People often say, ‘God is still writing my story!” Well in essence God is writing your story every night in a dream, and the good thing is you get to see it and partner with God in faith.

So if God holds us accountable of what He has revealed to us, how then do I become accountable of my dreams? Here are some of the key steps to being accountable for God's revelation:

1. You’re not as intelligent as your pen and paper!

Daniel 7:1; In Belshazzar's first year as king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream. He saw a vision while he was asleep. He wrote down the main parts of the dream.

This can never be over emphasised, as simple an instruction as it is, it is the most difficult thing to do. It takes discipline to follow through this exercise. In order for you to be more accountable, and help you remember your dreams you need to keep a journal. I’d prefer the convectional pen and paper. I know we are the the technological age, and the iPhone and Samsung came with tech savvy apps but nothing beats a pen and paper. Writing down your dream is obedience because countless of time in scripture God instructs people to write down what they see in a book; Rev1:19, Isaiah 8:1, Isaiah 30:8, Jeremiah 30:2, Jeremiah 36:2, 28, Habakkuk2:2

You can imagine if these men had not kept a diary (tablet/scroll) would we even have the Bible. It is because of their obedience that we have such a glorious inheritance of God’s Word, and we can reflect on it day and night. And so if you write down your dreams, you can reflect on them, think them through, pray and seek God as to the deeper meaning. This means you begin to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, (Phillipians2:12)

The human brain has a tendency to forget things, I don’t think one would even bother to remember or recall their dreams. Trying to recall your dreams by head/ heart (memorizing) is such a tall order. So make life easy by just writing the dream down, even the silliest of dreams.  Once you begin to do this, be disciplined in it. Pen and paper are the dreamers best friend and handy accessory. Never  underestimate the value of dreams, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

2. Summarize the dream!

We all know what a summary is right? Its an account of the main parts of a story. So what is happening when you dream is that the Holy Spirit is showing you, your life story, a dramatization of it, (90% of the dreams you have are personal, they carry a personal, contextual message about yourself). So when you wake up, instead of writing the whole dream down, make a short summary. This is what the bible is saying Daniel did in Daniel 7:1, “…He wrote down the main parts.” This is very important, it will help you understand the dream and make the process of interpretation more clear. I will share on this later in a future blog on “How to interpret your own dreams.”, but in the mean time always remember to summarize your dream, no matter how long, and short it was. Your dream is way easier to decipher if its written down in summary form.

3. Don’t be frightened by your dream!

Daniel 4:19; “Then Daniel (who had been renamed Belteshazzar) was momentarily stunned. What he was thinking frightened him. I told him, "Belteshazzar, don't let the dream and its meaning frighten you." (GWT)

Dreams can be a handful. Sometimes they can be scary, yes scary especially warning dreams. Most people will quickly say oh well it was just a nightmare but the bible says in Job 33:16,17; “Then he opens the ears of men and terrifies them with warnings, that he may turn man aside from his deed and conceal pride from a man.’ (CEV)

This is the thing, you can’t pray away, or bind or rebuke godly terror. Listen, God gives you a shaking and terrifying warning dream so that you can change your ways. Warning dreams from God do not bind you in fear, they help you think about your inner self, your actions, your relationships whether all these are helping you go in the direction God intends you to go. A warning doesn’t mean the danger is conclusively going to come. Its an opportunity to turn around.

So don’t press the panic button over your dream, no matter the content in it. God who is the giver of the dream is still in control of your life. He wants to partner with your in walking out a victorious life, bearing in mind that “in all these things overwhelming victory is ours through Christ who loved us” Romans 8:37 (NLT). God is not in the business of showing you things to frighten you, He reveals things to empower you and help you get to your inheritance.

4. Go back to the giver of dreams!

Daniel 2:18; Then he said, "Pray that the God who rules from heaven will be merciful and explain this mystery,”

A true dream from God will lead you back to Him. The most important thing is to grow and develop a personal relationship with God. When you have a dream, and its puzzling and confusing get on your knees. Pray and ask God to tell you what the dream means to you. Some dreams, if not most of them will come with a certain degree of complexity. You will get all twisted up in trying to figure out what it means. That’s quite normal, in fact I always say the more complex the dream, the deeper the meaning. A dream is a call to prayer, a call to be in communion with the Holy Spirit and His Word.

When I first started having dreams that I didn’t understand. I had no option but to pray, and read the Bible. I found out that the more I prayed, the more I was led to scriptures and verses that were key in helping me get the message God had shown me in a dream. Dreams are God’s way of having us busy in prayer. The lifestyle of a dreamer is one that is marked by a culture of prayer. You pray a lot for yourself and others based on what you see. The quickest response with regards to a dream that is confusing is simple, pray that God explains to you in light of His Word. Wisdom is given to those who ask; James1:5, “f any of you need wisdom, you should ask God, and it will be given to you. God is generous and won't correct you for asking.”

God is a generous God, He is a caring, loving and giving Father. He is not mean, angry or stingy. He gives freely when you ask of Him.