DREAM TOOLS:
Resources To Encourage Artists to Develop Godly Responses to Dreams to Increase Intimacy with God and Become More Effective in Reaching the Lost
- by Grace Wiebe, April 2007
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**All Scriptures from NIV
For far too long, we in the west, especially, have tended to largely 'throw out the baby with the bathwater' when it comes to recognizing the biblical value of dreams as an important part of God's communication with us - and indeed a vital part of bringing heart healing, directions, wisdom and deeper intimacy with Him, etc. We seem to tend to think that dreams were for the ancients, and so we lean towards devaluing them or attributing them to too much pizza the night before.
We are, however, living in a season in which the Holy Spirit seems to be increasingly waking up the Church to HIS perspective of dreams and the high value He places on them. If we do some research on dreams throughout Scripture, we will see that this was a vital part of the lifestyles of God's people, and a way in which He often used to reach out to the lost.
I believe that as we as believers become more fluent in our godly responses to the dreams (and visions - more on that another time) we receive from the Lord, we will also become skilled, as we are led by the Holy Spirit, in interpreting dreams/visions. This, I believe, is also one of the many ways which we will be able to effectively and increasingly function in to reach out to the many lost around us, such as New Agers, who have already been open to/and using dreams all along, but who need to understand them from a scriptural basis of Truth rather than the deceptions/distortions of the enemy - and to come to know THE REVEALER OF MYSTERIES Himself.
Daniel 2:28 "…but
there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar
what will happen in days to come. Your dream and the visions that passed through
your mind as you lay on your bed are these:…" Daniel 2:29 "As
you were lying there, O king, your mind turned to things to come, and the
revealer of mysteries showed you what is going to happen." Daniel 2:47
"The king said to Daniel, "Surely your God is the God of gods and
the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal
this mystery." (These are from NIV)
**Ie.
Evangelistic dream interpretation
http://www.parousianetwork.org/ParousiaRadio/Parousia081505.mp3
When the devil masquerades as an 'angel of light' and develops counterfeits for his own purposes, which New Age and related occultic religions are full of, I believe we would do well to realize that the reason is because the enemy knows how VALUABLE these things are, and since we as the Church have tended to abandon them and fear them due to past excesses/extremes, others have run with them…to their destruction. Anything that God uses to build up His Kingdom and bring His LIFE, is likely to have a counterfeit that Satan is using to bring destruction and death.
Rather than continuing to run from these counterfeits in fear - as we have tended to do for generations - I believe it is a time when the Holy Spirit is increasingly waking up the Church to reclaim the things the enemy has stolen, including many of the things that he is using as counterfeits, such as dreams and visions, psychic phenomenon, etc., because He created them for US, the CHURCH, to function in them according to HIS TRUTH and LIFE and POWER for HIS OWN PURPOSES in seeing His Kingdom come and His will being done on earth as it is in heaven!
As in the story of King David and his men seeing EVERYTHING that the enemies had taken from them restored (1 Sam. 30), I believe it is time to 'take back the plunder' and to reclaim everything the enemy has also stolen from the Church! ! Sam. 30:18 David RECOVERED EVERYTHING the Amalekites had taken, including his two wives. 19 NOTHING was missing: young or old, boy or girl, plunder or anything else they had taken. David brought EVERYTHING back."
I believe it is a time when, like the Bereans (Acts 17:11 "Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true."), we need to find out what the Word really says about these matters and walk in that. Then, as we come across New Agers or others that are utilizing dreams in their lives, like Paul when he reached out to the lost in Athens regarding the 'unknown God' (Acts 17:23 "For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.") and built a bridge to their hearts on that from the place of distortion where they were at, it will also give us open doors to communicating with them His Truth and DEMONSTRATING it as God stirs up His gifts in us and leads/empowers us by His Spirit.
As God's artists, many of whom are directly connected to many involved in these counterfeits that the enemy is using, I believe we will have increasing opportunity to function in these gifts to help bring His Truth, Life, healing and restoration to their lives as we live out His heart/life of reconciliation/restoration as His ambassadors.
We as artists likely have an easier time of learning to understand and interpret dreams because we are already more aware of the use of our imaginations and often value and use symbolism in our art and appreciate it in the art of others, but I believe this is an area that the Holy Spirit is wanting to develop across the board. (Acts 2:17 " 'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.")
I would encourage us to find out the Truth about these things, repent of believing the lies we've often tended to believe about dreams, etc. - many of which have been handed down through the generations, repent of the fears - since we are to live by faith in Him and not by fear of the enemy, and learn to reclaim our dream life for His purposes and glory, for the sake of His Kingdom and so we may love Him more deeply and those around us, as well.
In a coming edition I want to include an article regarding some thoughts on biblical imagination, which will include more about dreams and visions as well.
Following are some resources to help you develop your godly imagination, understanding of symbols, hearing God better through your dreams, etc.
The
Language of Dreams - online MP3 audio file
PS by the way, about this one, at the end she talks about nightmares -
it seems there is some controversy about what nightmares are all about and
where they're from, from various folks I've heard teaching on this....
Dream Tools
Pt 1 - http://www.samuelsmantle.com/images/storiies/Samuels%20Mantle%20Newsletter1.pdf
Pt 2 - http://www.samuelsmantle.coom/images/stories/Samuels%20Mantle%20Newsletter%202.pdf
Pt 3 - http://wwww.samuelsmantle.com/images/stories/Samuels%20Mantle%20Newsletter3.pdf
Pt 4 - http://www.samuelsmantle.com/images/stories/Samuels%20Mantle%20Newsletter4.pdf
Pt 5 - http://www.samuelsmantle.com/images/stories/Samuels%20Mantle%20Newsletter%205.pdf
Principles of Christian Dream Interpretation - good stuff!!!
Here are some more
resources to assist you in developing in your dream life:
http://disciplethenations.org/index58.html#Dreams
Great Commission Worship & Arts Center