Understanding Your Dreams

Did you know that God gives us dreams to tell us things? Do you take notice of them? Do you know what they mean?

There are many dreams in the Bible with their interpretation and people believed that some dreams were extremely important. A good example is King Nebuchadnezzar who told his advisers that he would put them all to death for not being able to tell him his dream and interpret it, but God gave Daniel the same dream and its interpretation. See Daniel 2:24-28.

Another example is Pharaoh who raised Joseph to second in command after the interpretation and wise application of the dreams of cattle and grain that God had given him. See Genesis 41:15-16 and Genesis 41:37-40.

In the New Testament this continued, e.g. Joseph being told by an angel, who appeared in his dreams, to marry Mary and later to take Jesus and Mary to Egypt for safety. He did as the angel told him. See Matthew 1:20 and Matthew 2:13-14.

Tips on writing dreams:

Write dreams down as soon as you can after waking up. This may be during the night in which case use a pencil (as this can cope with writing upside down or at an angle if you need to) and a dim light (so you do not wake yourself up too much).

You do not need to put a lot of detail down if you find reading your notes acts as a trigger to remember the dream again later on, however, you may find you need to write down important details, such as numbers, names, conversations, colours, as you may know it was important but not remember later on what it was.

Dream interpretation:

This is a vast topic but God uses a personalised symbol set with you. He uses what you already know, so with a little knowledge of some symbols, numbers and colours etc He started to give me interpretations which revealed His communication to me. See the section on Common Dreams to help get you started. There are also sections on various Symbols, Animals, Numbers and Colours.

Also, when I asked Holy Spirit ‘what does that mean?’ because it wasn’t a symbol I was familiar with or was a modern symbol or something personal in my life, He asked me ‘what does that mean to you?’ I found that very helpful when interpreting my own dreams. Somehow He brings out the interpretation as I decipher symbols, context, and feelings during the dream. This background preparation greatly helps in forming the interpretation and then application.

Bible Symbology:

There are many images and metaphors in the Bible. God uses them all the time in the Old Testament through prophecies and in the New Testament through parables. We use them a lot too.

Sea – often described as chaotic meaning dangerous and standing for enemies, or raging nations etc. Hence Psalms, such as Psalm 124:1-5, that speak of waters engulfing people, torrents sweeping over them, raging waters giving a picture of troubled times, anger and rage, war and battles.

Numbers – each number has at least one meaning. Eg. 2 can mean agreement, unity or established etc.

Number 2 – God often repeats Himself in quick succession so this is why 2 can mean established, ie. God will do it! He has made a decision and it will happen. A good example is the dream He gave to Pharaoh of the thin cows eating up the fat cows and the thin ears of grain eating up the fat ears. They mean the same thing. Joseph says the years of plenty and famine have been established by God, ie. it will happen. See Genesis 41:25-32.

Courses and interpretations are available through the Streams Training Centre. See website: www.streamstrainingcentre.co.uk

We have both completed ‘The Art of Hearing God’, ‘Understanding Dreams and Visions’ and ‘Advanced Dream Interpretation’ courses, and Mary has also completed the ‘Making Sense of your Dreams’ course.