A dream that seems more vivid than usual, or seems to answer a question you’ve had for a while. But what do these dreams mean? Where do they come from?
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Everyone’s had them—the kind of dream that seems like more than a dream. A dream that seems more vivid than usual, or seems to answer a question you’ve had for a while. But what do these dreams mean? Where do they come from? God speaks to us in many ways, from little signs to big, life-changing revelations, but does He speak to us in dreams as well? It’s a question many people—including authors, psychologists, and pastors— have tried to answer. Here’s what they had to say.
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Seth Barnes, author of The Art of Listening Prayer
“My guess about the people who don’t believe God speaks through dreams is this: It’s not that he isn’t speaking, but just that they aren’t listening.”
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Job 33:14-16 (NIV)
“For God does speak—now one way, now another—though no one perceives it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they slumber in their beds, he may speak in their ears.”
David and Allessia Edwards, authors of Revivals and Revivalists
“God speaks through dreams and He longs to touch you through dreams. One of the reasons our dreams are so powerful is because our subconscious is free to believe what our minds will not. When we experience heaven in a dream, we will see the world differently when we awake.”
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Lauri Quinn Loewenberg, Professional Dream Analyst
“After a long bout of depression, I dreamed I was in my son’s room. I knew I was dreaming so I asked my subconscious, what is the one thing I need to know right now. Suddenly I was in God’s hand. He lifted me up to the ceiling and said, ‘You’re going to be okay.’ My depression was gone after that dream. And things most definitely got better. And I am more than okay. I once read that when we pray before going to sleep, we speak to God… and our dreams are the way God speaks back. I believe that sometimes that is very true.”
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Eileen Elias Freeman, author
“Pay attention to your dreams—God’s angels often speak directly to our hearts when we are asleep.”
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Torema Thompson, author of Dreams: Record & Interpret Your Messages From God
He most certainly does! In fact, dreams are one of my favorite ways that the Lord speaks to me. The language of the Spirit is that of pictures and symbols. As you grow to understand the unique way the Lord speaks to you through dreams, they become an opportunity for a fresh, exciting, and deeply intimate relationship with God. What a blessing!”
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John Pratt Bingham, author of God and Dreams: Is There a Connection?
“There is an intimate relationship between our psyche and God. Dreams reveal this connection through their images that function as metaphors or symbols. Dream symbols point beyond their concrete representations to what lies behind them: the Spirit’s domain, where healing and guidance are available for our lives. When we learn the symbolic language of the psyche, we can discern God’s presence in our dreams.”
“We have forgotten the age-old fact that God speaks chiefly through dreams and visions.”
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Gregg Levoy, author of Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life
“All the world’s religions seem to agree that dreams are one of the primary channels through which God speaks to mortals—by constantly sending us signals, always hoping we will come across them, decipher them, and trace them back to the source.”
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Dallas Willard, author of Hearing God
“God addresses us in various ways: in dreams, visions and voices; through the Bible and extraordinary events… Each way God communicates with us has its own special uses, but all the ways are not equally significant for our life with him. In terms of overall importance, the written Word and Jesus, the living Word, are not even to be compared to a voice or vision used by God speak to an individual. And from among the individual’s experiences of hearing God, the ‘still small voice’ has a vastly greater role than anything else.”
