Dreams
and Visions
In the Bible we read that God often spoke
to his servants through dreams and visions.
Up until a year ago I had only rarely had a
dream that I could say confidently was from God. I had experienced two visions
in my life and also been woken in the night a couple of times with a message
for someone but most of the dreams I had that I actually remembered were mostly
disjointed and a re-enactment of my day or after eating too much cheese!
A year ago I received a prophetic word over
my life that in this next season God was going to open up a gate through dreams
and visions and also that I was to believe for more of the miraculous and the
supernatural. Since that time, I have begun to recognize God giving me dreams
more often and I have started putting a notebook and pen beside my bed in case
He wakes me up. I began noticing I was sometimes dreaming scripture, sometimes dreaming
in a moving picture and sometimes I woke up with a clear sentence in my head.
One time I had a name being repeated over
and over and because I was sleepy I hoped I’d remember it in the morning but
then God began to show me pictures that went with the name and I knew I needed
to wake up, put the light on and write it down. I am so glad I did as it was for
someone who I had never met but was about to meet.
Having a dream is one thing and
interpreting it is another. It’s so important to take the dream or vision we
have back to God and ask him what it means, whether it is for us or for someone
else and not attach our own meaning to it.
Since July and finishing TSM (Training in
Supernatural Ministry) a course run by the Kings Arms church in Bedford, I was
feeling equipped and ready to GO! I wondered what God had for me next. Wanting
to keep in the lane God has for me to run in, I found myself thinking quite a
lot about what that might be.
Some of the dreams this year have been from
God telling me to be patient and to wait, others have been for the church and
for a time not yet and more recently I had a dream where God showed me 5
different scenarios where I was sharing the gospel out in the market place and
as a result I was late for a pre arranged church meeting. At first when I woke
up and remembered the dream I wasn’t sure it was from God but later when I was
spending time with Him, it became clearer and I felt he was telling me that
this was what he had called me to, this was my lane, to go out and to tell
others about his love for them. Not to feel I should be elsewhere, even overly
busy serving in the church but that it was time to go out, releasing his
kingdom and believing him for the miraculous and supernatural where people are.
I knew God had given me a new passion and a confidence to speak to people and
to offer to pray for them, something I didn’t have before, well not for a long
time anyway.
Since having that dream, God has sent three
situations across my path, all quite challenging but all invitations to go and
share Jesus with someone. One was this week, to an old people’s home, to speak
to a man with dementia who was asking if all that lay before him was just mere
existence and then to die, another was meeting with a Muslim friend in a coffee
shop where I got to talk this week about Jesus being the Son of God and then
finally, today, meeting a friend who I hadn’t seen for 30 years but who had
recently woken up from a dream with a picture of me in her head and who wanted
to see me. Now partially sighted and also suffering with MS, I got to encourage
her in her faith which she said she had never let go of and also pray for her
healing.
I’d love to report that the man in the old
people’s home and my Muslim friend had both become Christians, no, not yet! and
that my other friend had been instantly healed. That would be wonderful?
It's actually though about listening and
being obedient and on the way to the promise to keep taking steps of obedience.
It’s about being available every day for the Holy Spirit to speak whether
that’s through dreams, visions, and the Bible or the many and various ways he
loves to talk to us.
I believe I will see people in this city of
Brighton saved and healed and set free and until then I will keep running in
the lane marked out for me.
