Thursday, March 29, 2007

Dreams

I have been thinking a lot about dreams lately and their significance. I am not a cessationist by any means, but I have not given dreams a whole lot of thought. Until lately. I believe that God still speaks and that He moves in whatever way He chooses, and I see that in the Bible, He used dreams many times to speak to His people. In fact, in Bible times and up until very recently, dreams were always significant. A lot of times we see them terrifying their recipients. But we see them arise and seek out someone who can tell them the meaning of their dreams. It wasn't until Freud that we stopped attributing dreams to spiritual sources and attributed them merely to physiological means.

While I believe that the Lord speaks to us in our dreams, I am not certain that every dream is God speaking to us. I am still studying this issue. But lately I have been having vivid dreams with very real significance. Some have been very definitely related to spiritual issues that are coming up, and I have known distinctly some mornings when I awake, that the Lord was indeed speaking to me that night, and that I got a window into what is going on in the spiritual realm.

But if my dreams are always from the Lord, why is it that they are almost always haunted and dark? Why do I wake up afraid almost every morning? Why do my dreams torment me? I dream very often, remembering multiple dreams per night, but my dreams are almost always nightmares of some sort. What does God desire to teach me through that, if it is Him speaking? And if all dreams are from God, why do people like Stephen almost never dream? And how do chemical imbalances, such as a low levels of serotonin, play a part in reduction of dreams, if the source of dreams is not physiological but spiritual?

I intend to look into this further. I don't know the answers, but I know God is telling me something! I'll keep you posted!

1 comment:

Stephen said...

C.S Lewis thoughts on the physical and spiritual realms is quite interesting. He believed they were so closely tied together that one did not move without the other. As to which initiates that is something to ponder. I do know there are no accidents with God and God knows and ordains even the "wierd" dreams we have. every thought! So there is some reason for them. However, this does not mean they have the same weight as would the visions listed in the Bible. Those are directly inspired by God. Good thoughts Babe! I love you!

-Stephen