While Sleeping

Anyone who maintains that dreams are of no consequence, but are instead random ramblings of the sub-conscious does not take the Word of God seriously.  If there was ever anyone who was affected in his dreams by the Spirit of God, it was Joseph, husband of Mary and earthly father of Jesus.  When Joseph was trying to figure out the news that Mary was going to have a child that was not his, the Scripture says, "...an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream..."  (Matthew 1:20).  Later we hear almost the same words as the Lord directed him to flee to Egypt and then later to return to Nazareth.     

It should not be outside of reason to consider that God uses our dream life to speak to us, to direct our path, and to help us to make the decisions we need to make.  When we sleep our sub-conscious pushes our conscious mind aside and does work that is still undone.  What shows up in our sleep may be some unmanageable stress, or some indecision, or, perhaps, a gentle nudge toward the place God wants us to be.  If He is able to work with our conscious mind during our waking hours, it should not be difficult to consider the reality of the same work taking place when our sub-conscious has control.   

Perhaps, part of the difficulty we might have with God being active in our dream life speaks to the issue of control.  When we are awake, we are figuring it out.  We are in control of where our thoughts are going and, thus, the results are more relative to our human ingenuity rather than divine intervention and guidance.  Over and over the Word calls us to the abandoned life.  When is it that we are in a more abandoned condition than the moment when our conscious mind sleeps and our sub-conscious mind is awaken by the Spirit?