Power of Dreams & Visions

The Etymology of Dreams

A dream, also called a vision, is an experience in a person's life through which a particular revelation from God is received. This revelation from God has two purposes. First, a vision is given for immediate direction; secondly, it is given to develop the Kingdom of God by revealing the moral and spiritual shortcomings of God's people in light of God's requirements for maintaining a right relationship with Him.

As human beings, God has given us the ability to dream. Man, by nature, is an amphibious being, meaning that he is capable of living both in the spirit and in the flesh. We are comfortable in both the natural and supernatural realms. There is a gift from God within man that enables him to dream. Each of us has been given a divine capacity to dream, regardless of our environment. Our soul is the centre of our emotions, dreams, and feelings. The Lord wants each of us to develop this ability that He has given us.

In the Bible, God has always been the architect and source of the dreams of His people. Those who served Him in ancient times experienced great success through their dreams because they followed the principles of God's Word.

Why do many people today have dreams but are unable to fulfil them? And why do only a few people succeed in fulfilling them? We will examine the causes of this problem together in this book and address possible solutions.

 

The Difference Between Dreams and Visions According to the Bible

Is there a difference between dreams and visions? If so, what is the difference?

Dreams and Visions

The prophet Joel prophesied about dreams and visions in Joel 2:28, saying:

“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.”

The fact that Joel speaks about both dreams and visions in this passage indicates that the two are different.

Joseph's Dream

Genesis 37:5–8 says:

“Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. He said to them, ‘Hear this dream that I have dreamed: Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.’ His brothers said to him, ‘Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?’ So, they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.”

His brothers became jealous of him, but his father kept these things in mind. However, his dreams were prophetic and were later fulfilled in his life.

Because of their jealousy concerning his dreams, his brothers sold him into slavery. But later, as described in his dreams, he became the administrator over all the wealth of Egypt and the country's prime minister. His brothers eventually bowed down before him, according to what had been revealed in his dreams.

Jacob's Dream

It is ironic to know that Jacob, who had not believed in Joseph's dreams, himself had a dream that prophetically announced the future of Joseph and the destiny of the people of Israel.

This story is recorded in Genesis 28:12–15:

“And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the LORD stood above it and said, ‘I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and the east and the north and the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.’”

This dream was also prophetic and was later fulfilled according to what had been announced to him at Bethel by the word of the Lord.

 

Biblical Dreams Are Prophetic

When dreams are mentioned in the Bible, they are often presented as prophetic and supernatural because God is their source. I have heard many people say that they have dreams, but they are often unable to interpret them.

When God gives a dream, He also gives its interpretation. A prophetic dream is one that comes from the Holy Spirit or from angels. Any dream that comes from God cannot contradict His written Word.

Satan is the master of confusion. He often contradicts the dreams that we may receive from God. He always tries to alter the authenticity of prophetic dreams.

I can say that whenever a dream appears to contradict what is written in Scripture, that dream cannot automatically be validated as something coming from God, because God can never contradict the truth written in His Word, the Bible.

We know that dreams are very random by nature, making it humanly difficult to determine with certainty whether they come from God or are simply the product of our own imagination. However, God can use the realm of dreams to communicate with human beings, and this should not produce confusion in us. When He speaks, we can have confidence that God is not a man that He should lie, nor a son of man that He should repent or change His mind. (Numbers 23:19).

When a dream comes from God, it produces peace rather than doubt.

 

Ezekiel's Vision

We now turn to the book of Ezekiel, which is often neglected because of its difficulty. We especially ask the Lord for His help so that we may find spiritual edification in it.

This prophet was a priest, like Jeremiah, his predecessor. However, while Jeremiah remained in Jerusalem, Ezekiel was part of an early group of captives taken “into the land of the Chaldeans” during the reign of Jehoiachin.

It was there, near the Kebar River, that the Word of God came to him and he witnessed an extraordinary vision.

Amid the fire and shining bronze, representing divine justice exercising its authority, the prophet saw four extraordinary creatures, which were cherubim, guardians and defenders of God's holiness (chapter 10).

Their attributes—their faces, wings, feet, and hands—are symbols through which God reveals His characteristics in justice and judgment: intelligence, strength, patience, and speed, represented respectively by the faces of the man, lion, ox, and eagle.

These symbols appear again, together with many others, in the book of Revelation, which is also a book concerning judgment (see Revelation 4:6–7).

These four forms of the four living creatures also represent four aspects of Christ that were manifested when He was on earth (see the four Gospels).

In other words, Ezekiel literally saw visions from God, and these visions were clearly from God. One of his visions was a vision of the glory of the Lord—the vision of the heavenly throne room.

It was not a dream, but a vision because it took place within the supernatural dimension from God's perspective (see Exodus 33:20).

Ezekiel also had a vision of the valley of dry bones. In Ezekiel 37, the prophet described:

“The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones.” (Ezekiel 37:1)

Obviously, this was not a dream but a vision because the hand of the Lord was upon Ezekiel. The fact that the bones came together, bone to bone, and that flesh came upon them represented something God told Ezekiel that would one day take place among the people of Israel.

This prophetic vision announced the resurrection and restoration of the nation of Israel and demonstrated that God had not abandoned Israel forever.

Do you see? This was a vision and not a dream. Why? Because the Spirit of the Lord came upon the prophet while he was awake, not while he was sleeping.

 

John's Vision

In Revelation 1:9–11, John wrote:

“I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, ‘Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.’”

Once again, we see that this vision was from God because John was taken “in the Spirit.”

The book of Revelation is not John's own revelation, but the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending His angel to His servant John (Revelation 1:1).

Once again, this vision was prophetic, as was the entire book of Revelation.

The book of Revelation was not written in strict chronological order, nor was it written as a simple sequential timeline of events. Rather, it presents a series of events and visions occurring at different points in time.

The visions in the Bible are from God. Visions that people receive today may or may not be from God, but what comes from God will confirm what is written in Scripture.

I do not want to restrict the possibility that God can also use visions to speak to us, but we can ultimately rely only on the truth of God's written Word when evaluating visions.

 

The Difference Between Visions and Dreams

The main difference between biblical visions and dreams is that dreams are received while a person is asleep, whereas visions are received while a person is awake and often occur “in the spirit.”

Today, many people claim that they have visions and dreams from God, but how can they know with certainty whether these experiences are truly from Him?

We can discern whether God is the source of impressions that reside within our spirit when they become completely consistent with biblical doctrine and are confirmed in accordance with God's timing and circumstances.

If someone has a vision or dream that does not agree with what the Bible says, you can be certain that it does not come from God. It is a deception that comes from the Enemy. It must be rejected in the name of Jesus.

 

The Effectiveness of Dreams

Dreams are a realm of human experience that can have intellectual, ethical, spiritual, and supernatural significance.

Living in an earthly body, we have within our being a hidden region where our thoughts operate both during daylight and during sleep. This hidden region can be called the world of impressions.

I remember when I was very young, God used different methods to communicate with me—visions, dreams, and words of knowledge. Sometimes it was even difficult to interpret the messages that came from the Lord, but all the visions I received from Him had a prophetic and real meaning for my life.

For when God speaks, His Word never returns to Him without accomplishing its purpose. What He says always comes to pass.

Know that God communicates with us through the world of impressions. This is one of the most common ways God uses to speak to us about His plans and to draw our attention to an event or season that is taking place.

The world of dreams and visions is a key to releasing the word of knowledge. It enables us to access the gateway of heaven and release divine Favor into our lives.

All prophetic gifts belong to the dimension of signs and wonders. God often uses them as a means of communicating with His people.