Dreams and Visions

Acts 2:17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:

How important are dreams and visions?

Joel 2:28 says about the same thing, And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:

 God uses dreams and visions to speak to and instruct people. He considers them to be vital. He used one to protect his son and announce that He was special.   

In Matthew 1:18-25 He speaks to Joseph in a dream that an angel tells him that it is all right to marry his espoused wife Mary.  She did not cheat on him by becoming pregnant.  He told him that the Holy Spirit conceived the child.

He shows us things in dreams too.

The other night I had a dream that I believe came from God. In my dream, hundreds of people jammed our little country church.  There were at least a hundred people on stage playing instruments and singing.

I have never seen that many people there at once. Why don’t I just discount that dream as due to the pizza I ate too close to bedtime?

It is because other people in the church also had similar dreams that I heard about.  God will build His church. If necessary, he will cause events that make people eager to get back to God.

Chernobyl

I remember when the world held its breath while a nuclear plant in Russia melted down. I reached for my Bible and started reading Revelation. I heard that Chernobyl meant wormwood and was sure that the name was in there somewhere. I dreamed of people flocking into churches everywhere. I did not belong in any church at the time. The specter of a common disaster brought people together and closer to God.

Your dream.

We all have many dreams every night. Some are silly. Others are built around things you heard and saw during the day.  Most do not matter and are easily forgotten.

We remember dreams sent by God. They are different from the zany ones that race through the night.  They are dreams that stay with you and push you to do something about them. 

Most people do not experience a lot of God dreams. I do believe that mine foretells future events. When you have such a dream, pay attention. It may be God trying to tell you something.

BibleGateway.com KJV

Joseph's Dream created circa 1790

by Gaetano Gandolfi (1734-1802)
Public Domain via Wikemedia Commons.
This work is in the public domain in the United States, and those countries with a
copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years or less.