There is such a plethora of books and articles on the
subject that it could occupy one’s life exclusively as a life study and I
relegate that choice to the same area as great studies about Angels. Both topics are helpful in our journeys, but
rather like spending tremendous time in the study of street signs. Street signs are extremely important in our
travels, but I can’t justify the need for more than one small book of
instruction on that topic. And yet,
every year more books and articles are written on the subject of Dreams.
Quite a few of these
are books dedicated to learning interpretation of dreams. I even joined a group at one time dedicated
to learning interpretation. Eventually I
exited the group because the goal was to put individual dreams under a
microscope and then confer with the many texts of interpretation to discover
the hidden message or meaning in the dream.
Again, it seemed like a great deal of fuss over a road sign.
But I’m not the average person. I’m not even the average Christian. This has become painfully apparent to me in
recent years. However, God has presented
me with His blessing over my uniqueness and even a bit of humor and
appreciation of it (to my pleasant surprise).
Anyway, in my uniqueness (lol) and experience, I have found Dreams (and
Angels) to be wonderful tools at my disposal.
When they present themselves in my life, it is for purpose – a purpose
that usually blesses me greatly. But I
primarily regard them and their messages as personal and for that reason I
rarely find helpful information in a book or an interpreter. If the meaning is not blaringly obvious, then
I ask the sender – God – to explain His message to me clearly.
I’ve always been of a mind to think that if God would send
me a message, it was because He wanted me to understand something. If I don’t immediately understand that
message, then its purpose in coming to me was wasted. And this is absolutely not what God is
about. He is not a waster. Therefore I ask Him when I am unclear. Every time I’ve asked Him, the answer was
forthcoming. He doesn’t leave me
wandering around wondering what He means.
This doesn’t preclude the involvement of another person. One time, He sent me to a particular person
who had the message I needed. But that
was only once out of hundreds of messages.
Most often the answer is direct and reasonably quick.
I’ve had a few instances of consulting books on Dreams and
was left heavily unsatisfied. Lists of
meanings fill large volumes and are frustratingly vague. One word or color or object can literally
have 20 different meanings depending on the author. There are bodies of readily accepted meanings
too, and everyone seems to be studying them.
I may be completely off my noodle in what I’m about to say, and if that
proves to be the case down the road then I’m open to change. After all, change seems to be a constant for
me. J
I’ve also watched dream practitioners and left
unsatisfied. Their repertoire of
interpretations seems to come from years of studying dreams, which I won’t
condemn but again, I don’t understand.
Here’s why. The color red in my
dream will have a particular significance for me personally. The very same dream for another person should
have particular significance for them.
The personal message is unique to each person and to their relationship
with God. A list of meanings or study of
them can only be vague at best and will most definitely not be very personal.
It appears to me that people line up like cattle in a pen,
standing in lines, to receive interpretation for personal messages and leave
with the same situation in which they arrived.
They haven’t gone to the sender to get the message. This is a conundrum to me because they have
the same option that I do. Speak to the
sender and receive His direct response.
I don’t flatter myself with a special gift of hearing from God. However this seems to be the bottom line in
this topic and many others. If we will
not spend the time to hear from our Father personally, then we will always be
chasing our tails in a foggy world looking for meaning and often picking and
choosing meaning from public consensus
that satisfies our egos, which is still not the intended meaning.
Daniel was a great interpreter of dreams. Some people think it was because of his years
of study in Pharaoh’s court. But I see
that Daniel was receiving interpretations before that. And they came directly from God. They were personal and they were unique to
the person and the message. I don’t
believe Daniel learned to interpret dreams.
I believe Daniel learned to have a relationship with the sender.
We can sit in a room with a stranger and hear him talk and
completely misunderstand simple statements.
Or we can sit in a room with a friend and completely understand his
simple statements because we know him and understand him. We invested time in this relationship and
thereby understand and know his personality and thought patterns and
communication habits. This is
personal. And it takes time – lots of
time.
A baby doesn’t learn to walk by studying walking. A baby learns to walk by trying to walk and
falling many, many times. It’s the same
with relationship. We don’t know and
understand anyone in the first few visits with them. It takes years of interaction to know someone
well. Even then, we can still be tripped
up because personalities are so deeply unique and emotional.
God is a living Spirit with character and personality. He is completely unique and immensely
complex. But because of His great Love
for us, He welcomes our relationship with Him.
He actually precludes all real understanding of Him based on this
relationship. He allows people to wander
around in a foggy world if they have no incentive to spend time in relationship
with Him. We must stop being lazy about
spending the time with Him to participate in this relationship. Otherwise we can continue walking around in a
foggy world, never receiving the personal messages He is sending.
However, staying in the foggy world, the lazy world, does
keep a large horde of preachers well paid and supported for being the
“go-between”.
Drink of His blood and eat of His body – this is personal –
or we have no place with Him.
Dig in – eat.
