When Web-log becomes Dream Journal
I have a very high view of Scripture. I believe that God has supernaturally revealed everything a person needs to know in His Word. Christians should know their Bible and obey God’s instructions it contains. As far as daily living, in the words of that great “theologian” Rex Stout, “You are to act in the light of experience as guided by intelligence,” and your knowledge of God’s Word. I do not believe that God gives specific marching orders outside of the revelation He has already given.
A lot of people do not agree with this view. They think that some people are specially anointed and here direct (and even audible) instructions from God. They believe that they receive visions and dreams giving additional revelation. I do know that thee are many people in the world today, especially in the Muslim world, who are seeing a man in their dreams who tells them to seek out Jesus. I even have met some of these people. The difference is that these dreams lead people to Jesus, the Church, and God’s Word; they don’t supply knew revelation.
So, I believe that dreams in general are a window into our thoughts, not a channel to God.
That being said, I have had some crazy dreams the past two nights:
The first dream took place where I live, specifically in the building where part of our church meets, and where an evangelistic ministry is located. In the dream, the building next door (that does not exist in real life) collapsed in on itself as we watched. For the whole rest of the dream, I was dreading the fact that I would have to tell my partners in ministry that we would have to evacuate their building as it too was structurally unsound. When I did tell them, I realized why I was dreading it. They refused to listen to me.
Last night I dreamed of a former church where I used to work. In my dream, the sanctuary was dark but a service was taking place. The pastor was preaching a sermon. There was something “off” about the pastor (not surprising, considering who the man was—long story) and in the middle of the sermon he had to leave. As I went up to the pulpit to finish the message, I saw that he was simply reading directly from pages he had ripped out of a study Bible on the topic of Doctrine and how to recognize heresy.
What do you do with that?
A lot of people do not agree with this view. They think that some people are specially anointed and here direct (and even audible) instructions from God. They believe that they receive visions and dreams giving additional revelation. I do know that thee are many people in the world today, especially in the Muslim world, who are seeing a man in their dreams who tells them to seek out Jesus. I even have met some of these people. The difference is that these dreams lead people to Jesus, the Church, and God’s Word; they don’t supply knew revelation.
So, I believe that dreams in general are a window into our thoughts, not a channel to God.
That being said, I have had some crazy dreams the past two nights:
The first dream took place where I live, specifically in the building where part of our church meets, and where an evangelistic ministry is located. In the dream, the building next door (that does not exist in real life) collapsed in on itself as we watched. For the whole rest of the dream, I was dreading the fact that I would have to tell my partners in ministry that we would have to evacuate their building as it too was structurally unsound. When I did tell them, I realized why I was dreading it. They refused to listen to me.
Last night I dreamed of a former church where I used to work. In my dream, the sanctuary was dark but a service was taking place. The pastor was preaching a sermon. There was something “off” about the pastor (not surprising, considering who the man was—long story) and in the middle of the sermon he had to leave. As I went up to the pulpit to finish the message, I saw that he was simply reading directly from pages he had ripped out of a study Bible on the topic of Doctrine and how to recognize heresy.
What do you do with that?
You ask Him for truth.
ReplyDeleteJohn 16:13 (New International Version)
"But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come."
I'm in agreement with your views.
ReplyDeleteI think for those of us Christians who have the Scriptures readily at hand, our dreams are, as Dickens put it, "[it] may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato. There's more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!"
Unfortunately, there are Christians here who would rather search dreams than Scripture.
Yeah. What I asked at the end is more of a statement. I know exactly what these dreams were about, and it related directly to what I was saying at the beginning with all the revelation issues.
ReplyDeleteIronically, Becky, the verse you quoted is often used by the very heresies I am encountering to justify their claims of "additional truth." (But I know what you meant by it.)
If anything people need to better embrace the Truth we all have been given but don't bother to know all that well.