Dreaming

The Bible is full of dreamers and dream stories.  To remember them is to remember Joseph in Egypt, Daniel, Joseph of Nazareth, and, of course, Jacob.  After Jacob tricked his father into giving him the blessing which belonged to the first born son, he took  his mother's advice and fled in fear of the wrath of his brother, Esau.  On the way to where he was going, he had the ladder dream that was filled with angels. In that dream he experienced the Lord standing beside him saying, "...Know that I am with you, and will keep you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land..."(Genesis 28:15)  When Jacob awoke from the dream, he took the rock he had used for a pillow and created a shrine to the moment of God appearing to him in the dream.

 

All of us have had our share of dreams.  Perhaps, not all of us have had dreams like the one Jacob had at the place he called Bethel.  It may also be true that many of us do not really consider the possibility that God might choose to use our dream life to speak to us, lead us, or help us make a decision.  But, as we stop to think about it, we realize that when we sleep and when we dream, our conscious mind which we use to direct our life is replaced by the sub-conscious part of us which dares in the absence of the conscious to work overtly in our behalf.  If God can use conscious thoughts during the day to guide, why is it difficult for us to believe that He can do the same in the night when our sub-conscious sits on the throne?

 

Of course, there is some wisdom in moving slowly into embracing this dimension of our inner life.  It is often the case that dreams are not to be taken literally, but simply open up some sub-texts to us.  Our dreams may be giving us another voice to hear.  It may not be as obvious as we think it is.  Instead, we are likely to discover that we have to learn how to listen to the voice of our dreams.  If we are listening for the voice of God, we need to make sure it is His voice we are hearing and not our own.  It may take some practice to distinguish between the two.