Dreams & Nightmares From A Biblical Lens
Dreams & Nightmares From A Secular Worldview
Throughout History many men have posited their ideas and have debated back and forth about what dreams actually are. Secular psychologist, psychoanalysts, and psychiatrists have put forth their ideas. Lets take a look at some of them so we can compare them to what the Bible says about Dreams and Nightmares.
Sigmund Freud believed and taught that dreams were “Wish-Fulfillments” or in other words they were the result of our desire to live out things we could not do in real life. Sigmund was driven to these conclusions largely due to his belief in the Theory of Evolution. He believed that our driving force for all things was sexual in nature.
This however could not be further from the truth as it is commonly reported it is fulfillment/contentment and peace people truly seek after. Gluttony and addictions clearly point out that the driving force of the flesh is not just sexual in nature.
No matter what it is that drives our flesh whether it is Fornication and porn, or overeating and addiction, it always leaves you more empty than before you indulged upon your desires as these things can not provide peace and fulfillment. Only being right with God through Jesus Christ, and living in God's way can allow you to truly have peace, fulfillment, and eternal purpose.
Freud's theory however raised another issue as it did not explain traumatic dreams and nightmares. Not to mention it did not explain the mundane or irrelevant dreams we experience every night we don't even remember but still takes place.
Carl Jung in contrast to his contemporary Freud, believed that dreams were direct mental expressions of our unconscious brain that persisted in common archetypes and symbols and metaphors.
He certainly was close to the Truth except that he inserted his own metaphysical explanation for things that were also devoid of God. This gives license once again to prove the infallible Word of God which says
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.”
Proverbs 9:10
A mistake both Freud and others like Jung made when trying to understand God's creation is to remove their fear of the Lord and leave themselves without wisdom and understanding.
As a result they can only get so close before they miss the mark, even as brilliant as they were as men.
Jung likewise believed dreams served two functions, to compensate for unresolved issues in the dreamer's psyche, and to examine the future from a safe place (so to speak) to anticipate future events. Sort of a defense mechanism of sorts. In short this is true, but limited in its scope by denying God, as this also fails to explain why certain types of dreams exist including dreams of a prophetic nature. Dreams reported in the Bible which tell of events, and then historically long after those events and books were written those things come true in an incomprehensibly succinct way.
Allan Hobson and Robert McCarley came up with REM & Activation-Synthesis Theory in the 1970s.
Both men were Harvard professors when it was discovered that during REM sleep, electrical signals called electroencephalogram recordings, pass through the brain.
They then both took this as the means of which stimulated our brains to dream, and thus, dreams had no intrinsic value or meaning as they were just side effects of the brain’s normal activity.
At the time this theory was revolutionary but recently scientists have mostly discounted this theory as it also does not speak about why we have all types of dreams. It is a classic case of assigning a correlation as the causation.
Antti Revonsuo a Finnish psychologist came along later and posited the Threat Simulation Theory.
Revonsuo found that during REM sleep, the amygdala (the fight-or-flight section of the brain) actually fires in similar ways as it does during a survival event.
He suggested that dreams serve as our processing of events that may occur to prepare us for their happening.
However this also fails to account for all phenomena of the dream state such as dreams inducing trauma or sexual dreams, dreams that portray the gamutof human conscientiousness.
Secular World-View’s Inadequacy To Explain Our Psyche
None of these theories adequately describe why we have dreams of different sorts, and why some are nightmares, others sexual, yet others happy dreams while some yet mundane and forgettable in nature. We even have strange dreams or comical dreams, in fact I personally have experienced waking up laughing in my sleep on occasion which is now understood as sleep laughing and called Hypnogely which is found to be harmless in most cases. It is common to report that often when waking up from laughing, whatever you were laughing about really wasn’t that funny at all. If you have not experienced sleep laughing, most people have experience nightmares or other types of dreams. Suffice it to say the above theories really offer no answer to why we dream what we dream aside from Carl Jung who was probably the closest, albeit off when he inserted his “Common Archetypes” theory you here from those like Jordan Peterson.
The fundamental issue of why these theories fail to answer the simple question of “Why do we Dream?” is because they all stem from Atheistic scientist who deny God’s existence and therefore lack Wisdom. These men have written extensively on dreams, some telling you how all dreams are random, others telling you it is based on mythological archetypes, but the fact remains that none of the theories above really explain the full range of thoughts and dreams where the Bible alone does!
How These Theories Came To Be
On 24 November 1859, Charles Darwin released his publication called “On the Origin of Species” which birthed the now largely atheistic scientific community abroad that rely on that age-old debunked theory called Evolution to further form their theories of our psyche and the world around us.
All theories of which are completely devoid of God an again, wisdom. The Issue is, if evolution is true and everything is chaos, then nothing is true, including evolution.
Truth can only be truth when it is unchangeable and static like the nature of God. When truth becomes fluid, it is not Truth, it is a lie masquerading as reality.
Now at the birth of this departing from God and the Biblical idea of the psyche these theories began to emerge to explain what the Bible had already explained thousands of years before.
The Biblical View Of The Psyche
Many dream analysis professors, psychologist/psychiatrists, as well as even occult practitioners have all tried to wrap their minds around what exactly dreams and the psyche of humans actually are.
For example Jung and many like him hypothesized that dreams were not something you did, but something that happened to you, like the thoughts in our heads. This is why he came up with the theory of the common archetypes that you hear Jordan Peterson talk about a lot. It comes from an improper understanding of how we are made and operate.
This primarily happens because the scientists making these theories are without wisdom due to their lack of fear of God and as a result they cannot see the whole picture, even as wildly brilliant as they are. They trust in their own understanding, instead of in Gods (Proverbs 3:5-6).
They posit that dreams and thoughts are something that just randomly happen to us, and that we do not make them happen. This however, is not true. Let me explain why:
The you that is “having dreams or thoughts happen” is still you making those thoughts and dreams happen. You see (no pun intended), Jung made the mistake of assuming the “You” that is well… the you that makes choices, is the only part of our psyche. Where the Bible tells us a completely different story. The Bible shows us that the seemingly “random” things you think are “happening to you” are not a result of mythical archetypes common to human psychology but instead simply a result of what's in your heart, and prior choices you made coming together in moments of reflection and new information.
They are not at all random as Jung would have you believe. You as a creation of God made in his image and likeness (Genesis 1:26-27) function like Mark 12:30 tells us. Christ in his address to the people, lays out 4 elements of what we are which consists of our Hearts, our Souls, our Minds, and our Strength.
The Heart (Kardia) The inward man and the seat of moral and rational existence and ponderance. What we think, feel, reason, and contemplate solidified into who we are. It is the solidified version of us.
The Soul (Psychē) The aspect of us that is the actual living we do such as the choices we make. It is our personality or who we are in character. The outward reflection of the inward part of us; What we do.
The Mind (Dianoia) The rational processing of thoughts and emotions. The process of thought and imagination before it becomes solidified in who we are in our Heart (Kardia) or our Soul (Psychē). The part that processes events in our life and we decide how we think and feel based on information which is why Romans 12:2 is so vital.
The Strength (Ischys) The aspect of our own will, our wants and desires and what we are heading towards. Sort of like our future casting of where we want to be.
Jesus Christ is the one who made us (John 1:3) and he breaks up our experiential existence into 4 different parts that have different purposes or goals. Once you understand this, you will finally also understand why he tells us in Proverbs 4:23 to “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” which another word for “keep” is to guard and protect.
Oftentimes if people are struggling with certain challenges that are internal/psychological, it is the heart that is sick, not the brain. The brain is functioning perfectly fine, it is the heart that needs adjustment, and it gets sick by what we put in it like Jesus says in Matthew 15:17-20:
“Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.”
From our Heart comes all that makes us evil and sick, so next time some stupid movie says “Follow your heart” just know they are literally giving you antichrist advice.
“And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.”
The Biblical View Of What Dreams Are
Now that we have an understanding of how the psyche works according the Jesus, we can learn from it how dreams work too. Since dreams are not the result of some random nonsense, or because of mythological archetypes, It seems pretty clear that the only remaining cause for our Dreams is the result of our thoughts, wants, fears, insecurities, and our lives coming together in a visual format for the purpose of processing those expressions Our dreams draw upon both our internal lives, and our external lives and one of the ways we can understand why we dreamt what we dreamt is by looking at the overarching feeling it possess. If you have a dream where all your hair falls out, it might be your fear of loss, or fear of coming undone beyond your control. Perhaps something happened recently where you felt this way, but couldn’t rationally process it. The brain uses these unresolved things we have difficulty processing logically or experiencing in real life, and plays them out visually so we can assess, prepare, and think about those things. In essence 99.99% of our dreams do not hold new revelation, but rather they possess new consolidation. Our brains are busy doing the job of processing and storing information that we have taken in by choice or by happenstance. Alot of what i am saying are contained within the theories of dreams by the aforementioned figures, with the balance of not applying odd theories to the mix.
For example many of the theories above hold truth in one way, but veer off in another. Carl Jung’s theory is probably the closest to reality, however he veers off when he begins to introduce a philosophical explanation for why we dream dreams that goes outside of reality into theory. It is actually quite simple. Dreams are a part of us, based on what we have experienced and thought, and they manifest themselves visually. They do not contain revelatory information from God or otherwise tell the future in almost all cases. They do however help us process our lives. In a safe environment.
Dreams are affected by numerous things in our lives and are a natural byproduct of living and they process a range of things from desires, to fears and anxieties, to the strange and odd, and the sexual. They are fueled by the choices in our lives and have no meaning other than letting us peer into to us our deeper thoughts and focus in life.
As an anecdotal piece of evidence to show this is true, when life changed from being a carnal Christian to a true Spiritual Christian (1 Corinthians 3:1) my dreams changed too, and the reason why is because my life and necessarily my heart had changed and so naturally my dreams changed also.
As I began to serve God with my life, teach and do evangelism, my dreams began to be filled with evangelistic endeavors and serving God where I would preach to people, or be in bad situations, but give people the Gospel.
The same is true for you right now reading this. If you are focused on the positive (Philippians 4:8) and serving God, rejoicing in him and his word, your dreams and thoughts will reflect the active physical and internal choices in your life.
Likewise if you do the opposite and focus on sexual things, or on even simple benign things such as Lego, your dreams will reflect your choice. Dreams and thoughts come to us by the natural product of our heart and mind working in conjunction and processing new information.
Dreams and thoughts are not random like Jung believed but are a product of your life. Rarely are dreams meant to derive meaning aside from revealing your current thoughts and choices. A fatal error happens when you try to derive some sort of revelatory meaning from God from you dreams that really are a result of your own life. As at that point you have made yourself and your life your own God really, by allowing your dreams to direct your life, that are a byproduct of your life in the first place.
It becomes a loop of death and destruction you should actively avoid. Once you understand this you can see the folly of letting dreams dictate your life. Instead accept that dreams are just dreams. Focus on God and his word and the rest will be added unto you (Proverbs 3:5-6; Matthew 6:33).
Biblical References To Dreams
In Chapter 7 of Job we see that Job is afflicted by Satan at the allowance of God. God allows Satan to destroy Job, kill his children, take all that he had, and leave Job with sores and worms and all the worst sorts of illnesses.
Job at this point who is arguably in the worst state of human despair refuses to curse God but instead curses the day he was born, and for about 35 chapters it goes over all the stages and places of depravity and despair Job is in and brings to bear the reasonings of men. In the end starting at chapter 38 the Lord God speaks to Job directly and rebukes him, and not until chapter 42 does God restore to Job twice that which is taken and in the process Job grows immensely in wisdom, God is praised, and the result of the entire thing is downright amazing as it brings Glory to God.
In Job's suffering in Chapter 7 verses 13-16 he says “When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint; Then thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest me through visions: So that my soul chooseth strangling, and death rather than my life. I loathe it; I would not live alway: let me alone; for my days are vanity.”
God who allowed all this to happen to Job for a great and wonderful purpose saw fit that the pain and suffering of his life caused his dreams to manifest the same that were in his life. This also means that your dreams while a result of your life are not 100% your fault. One thing is for sure God allowed Job to have these dreams and these dreams were influenced by his life which led him to the point of wanting to die due to how scary and horrid they were.
This is biblical proof of how our dreams and thoughts are not just a result of random mythical archetypes but instead what we covered above. On final note on Job, in Chapter 19 verse 23-27 it says (emphasis mine)
“Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! (they were!) That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever! For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: (The first resurrection when Christ rose from the grave and an earthquake happened and another arose) Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.”
Job all throughout has these amazing moments of wisdom and clarity where he refuses to curse God, and although he says things in despair that aren't quite right, in the end he looks to Christ with great faith, and in the end the Lord rewards him with plenty on earth and salvation! It is a wonderful lesson of trusting in God despite the hardships we endure.
Nightmares
Some people experience awful dreams, that much like Job, causes people to want to die. For example some mothers experience awful dreams about their baby being stolen or perishing, and this can be wildly disturbing for them and doesn't help with their existing fear, but that's the trick of it of which i will go into shortly.
Many might say it must be a demon or some other sort of wicked spirit that is causing the dreams, in Jobs case, who by the way was not the temple of God like we now are (1 Corinthians 3:16), it was a result of his life and God allowing it, and not a demon. There is still a chance it could be spiritually influenced to some degree, however we must understand that Satan and his Demons do nothing to any Christian unless expressly allowed by the Father.
All Biblical instances of Satan effecting people directly who are considered righteous or are saved (same thing), is when he is being used as a tool to carry out Gods will in the flesh not in the mind. The mind seems to be only accesses by God. In one case when God used Satan for carrying out his will, it was a man having intercourse with his mother or step mother and being killed by Satan so his spirit would be saved on the Lords day at the behest of Paul (1 Corinthians 5:5). Another is Job, who did not have the saving power of Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the same manner we do, but was still someone Satan needed God’s permission with to mess with in the flesh. It was not Satan tormenting his dreams, it was God allowing it. The chances your dreams are demonic as a Christian is about 0%. It is either a reflection of your life, or things you are avoiding dealing with, or God is allowing it.
If you are unsaved, I think even then Satan would need permission, as he has no access to our minds. In every instance of dreams in the Bible mentioned, it is always to carry out God’s will. God gives a person a dream to push them in a certain direction, such as Joseph and Marry and fleeing from Herod, and Daniel and his interprutation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.
Now in the case with the Mother tormented with nightmares about her child, there is actually a more practical explanation then invoking spiritual things. You see, in the Mothers case, It is that existing fear and not trusting in God that's causing it, not the dream telling you it's going to happen. It can be a self defeating loop if you take those dreams as prophecy of some sort allowing it to further feed your fears, which in turn, further adds to bad dreams.
Again our dreams are a manifestation primarily of our own thoughts and things we have experienced throughout the day, week, month, year, decade being visually processed in our brain. When you choose to dwell on things, you are telling your brain that this is something important to focus on and so when you sleep it will bring these things to your mind and process them.
So the trick of it as mentioned before is to dwell on what is good and pure like the Bible tells you to! (Philippians 4:8)
This is precisely why Romans 12:2 is so incredibly important and vital in the mental health discussion. In the case of the mother worrying about her baby perishing or being stolen:
Who is she trusting in?
Is she truly trusting in the Lord God who gave her baby to her?
Is she truly trusting in God to provide for her and her child?
Is she also at peace with the fact that we will all die?
Is she putting her faith in Christ or is she ruled by her own self and emotions?
Is she putting into practice Proverbs 3:5 which reads “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.”
Or is she letting fear rule her?
You see, while struggling with this, it is all her choices that led her to have these nightmares in the first place. There is a reason the Bible gives us commands, and it is not to harm us, but because God knows what's best, and what works for us as he is the very one who made us! What is more wise, trusting in some random scary dream? Or trusting the eternal father of eternal might and power, wisdom, and authority who told you to renew your mind according to his word (Romans 12:2) and commands you to Love the Lord your God with all your Heart all your mind, all your soul, and all you strength (Mark 12:30)?
Brothers and sisters, God gave us his word for instruction in all ways of life and living in godliness (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Living for God has the side benefit of being secure and whole both mentally and emotionally (2 Timothy 1:7).
Superstition and Occult Dream Claims
Now this teaching would not be complete without addressing how some people say that all dreams have some sort of spiritual meaning in them thus teaching others to look for any detail at all that might reveal some mystical truth behind their dreams. Its funny how people are so quick to turn to themselves and their own dreams for guidance instead of the word of God which is the Truth they claim they are searching for (John 1, John 14:6).
There are those who have even taken their own dreams and made false heretical theologies out of them. Claiming angels spoke to them or Jesus told them something. This is unfortunately the case with many false converts in the NAR and Word of Faith religion as well as with pretty much every cult that has ever existed. If you are unaware of what the NAR or Word of Faith religion is, a teaching will come out in the future in more detail of what the word of faith preachers of Satan actually teach, and what the Bible teaches instead.
Remember folks, the Catholics, the Mormons, and the Jehovah's Witnesses all see themselves as Christians (followers of Christ) but none of them are as what they believe is not what the Bible Teaches. In the same way the NAR and word of Faith prosperity and health and wealth religions are not Christian in any sense yet those in them are convinced they are saved. They may pray to the same God by the same name, but by deed they worship another God who is not the Father in heaven but instead Satan.
Occult Dream Claim
In this short section I'm going to cover the heretical stance of cults like the NAR and Word of Faith religions so you will be able to decipher what is correct.
“We must interpret our dreams because all dreams contain numbers and symbols animals and colors we can use to interpret God’s message to us!”
Nowhere in the Bible is this practiced, condoned, taught or even suggested as a practice for Christians to partake in. In fact it has more in common with occult paganism then it does with anything Biblical where the Bible DOES tell us to depart form such things:
“When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee. Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God. For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for thee, the LORD thy God hath not suffered thee so to do.”
Nowhere in the word does God use colors and animals to speak to people in dreams in some weird veiled manner. When God speaks it is clear and without mistake. His voice is undeniable, unfathomable and unmistakable. He speaks through a burning bush or a loud audible voice, not some weird dream about a blue pickle riding a unicorn.
The practice of trying to interpret dreams in this manner is occultic and evil not to mention foolish as before mentioned they are a result of your life and thoughts, not revelatory new information to base your life on in a deluded loop.
With any of the occult claims you hear from pagans that call themselves Christians, there isn't a single chapter or verse for their claims. The only possible verses they might misuse, is events when prophets of God interpreted dreams God gave to Kings and mighty men. This was first of all not common and furthermore much like the Apostles and the Miraculous Gifts of the Spirit which have ceased, these things are no longer required due to the completed word of God being available to us now. All these events happened when the Word of God was not fully written and the time of prophets and apostles were in effect. After this we see no Biblical or historical reference to dreams having meaning. I recommend our Teaching on Tongues and Healing for a extremely comprehensive view on the subject.
“If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the LORD thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.”
Can God Give Us Dreams Still?
Now this this does not mean God cannot give us dreams as it says in Acts 2:17 that dreams and visions are a part of the Holy Spirit being on earth. Again, the purpose was to communicate Gods will and word to a people who had not access to a completed word of God. As the word of God was completed, so was also the time of dreams being a common occurance With Christians. Much like our teaching on the Gifts, God can still give us dreams today, however they are never going to confusing, and in need of interprutation as God is not the God of confusion ().
99.999% of the time dreams are just us dreaming, and occasionaly one person out of millions may receive one from the Lord one night, which the message would be extremely clear and undeniable with no need for interpretation. Remember, to say we need dreams is to say Gods word is insufficient. We have all we need in the word of God. God can still however choose to reveal information to cause someone to act. For example a person may be told in the end times to leave their house and travel with their family into the wilderness. It turns out disaster comes to that house when they were gone sparing their lives to further serve God in the end times.
For some it might be never in their life, and for others once in a blue moon. In any case the norm and expected way for us to know the will of God is through his word as it says in Romans 12:2
“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
God communicates to us through dreams in the Bible therefore all dreams are from him!
As previously stated, It is true that God has communicated to some people in the past through dreams as we see in Genesis 37:5–10, Matthew 2:12–22, 1 Kings 3:5–15, Daniel 2:1; 7:1, Matthew 27:19 and in the case with the Apostle Peter in Acts 2:17 where the Bible says God will use dreams and visions at various times according to his will for his people. So yes God can and will use dreams to communicate to his people, however this needs to be reigned into a proper biblical understanding of what that means so that you don't go into the far left realm of the occult and mysticism.
First to do this correctly, we need to compare how many times this has happened in the Bible versus the amount of humans that have lived. As we can see from this link provided, God speaking to people in dreams is an insanely rare occurrence as there are only few mentions of it in the Bible compared to the 10s of Billions of people have lived.
Someone might respond:
Just because its in the Bible doesn’t mean God didn’t speak to others in dreams too!
First God is free to act as he has chosen, and second it also logically doesn’t mean He did give people dreams either that are not mentioned in the Bible. The person who says that is adding to the word of God, something expressly commanded not to do (Proverbs 30:5-6, Deuteronomy 4:2, Revelation 22:18-19, ).
In this day and age where Bibles are free on your phone with a few clicks, there really is no excuse for people to not study to show themselves approved unto God like it says in 2 Timothy 2:15 and additionally no excuse to use dreams as a means to understand God when he has already provided you his word. During times past God did many things he is not doing in the same frequency he did back then. Is it possible for God to still tell us to do something in a dream? Yes it is, and it probably happens more often than we know. However it will never be anything contrary to his word or provide any new revelation his word has not already provided.
The sole purpose now as his will has been fully revealed in his completed word, would be to offer encouragement, point you to his word, or warn you of coming doom so you can act upon it.
A real life example of how God used a dream is when brother Steven had a dream where his field of corn got decimated by a large tree which subsequently fell on his crop and destroyed it. Only a few stalks of corn remained and when harvest time came, he harvested the corn with fear of not having enough to provide for himself and his family, only to see that the corn turned out to be the size of himself and there was more than enough to go around.
So far we have seen God miraculously provide everything for Steven and his venture into farming and providing local produce. This is an example of a dream of encouragement of how God will provide, even when Steven is sure that things are decimated and he cannot make it to harvest and feed his family, that the Lord God shall provide in a miraculous way. None of the dream is against Gods word, and none of it is unclear. There was corn, then there wasnt, yet what he had was more then enough. God can and still does speak to us through dreams but there lies a danger in this too where people do the following.
We should rely on our dreams as the method of which God speaks to us!
In short, we are directed in the Word of God to rely on his words, and not on special divine revelation (Deuteronomy 8:3, Matthew 4:4). The word of God is sufficient for all things (2 Timothy 3:16). As a final word on this issue of using dreams to hear from God, whether it be to inform upon our theology, or as a way to gain more insight, or perhaps even to “experience” God in some self serving emotional way.
It is crucial you understand that yes God can and will give dreams to certain people at certain times but that the dreams he gives are always going to be in conjunction with his word. In other words the dreams are not primary as the Word has already revealed everything we need to know. Dreams are then in fact supplementary if and only if they are in complete alignment with the word of God.
To require a dream is like saying the word of God is not enough for you, and you need God to provide special revelation to you alone for your laziness to not just read his word and study it for yourself. This may sound harsh but that is the cold hard reality of it.
God could provide you 50,000 dreams and not one of them will be as clear without possible failure of interpretation as his word. It is his word and his word alone that we are to live off of as the previous verse says. So in like manner, i will now close by quoting Deuteronomy 8:3.
“And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.”
