Have dreams come to you?
Were you troubled or made happy by them?
Whatever it is, the power of dreams to change life’s direction is well-known.
The foremost insight about dreams is that God shapes human history through individuals. It is of great encouragement to know that God’s eye which is ever alert to the fall of a sparrow, is alert to the possibilities that lie in an individual. It is to kindle, ignite, and fan to flame such possibilities that God often uses dreams.
Whenever dreams fulfil this purpose we can be assured that those dreams are from God.
The first Christmas story tells us how God used dreams to warn as well as encourage.God encouraged Joseph to take Mary home as his wife in a dream. He obeyed and that was critical in the furtherance of God’s plan.
Following that dream, he had three other dreams of warning about enemies who were trying to take the life of the child Jesus. Here too his obedience to the warnings counted very much in saving the life of the child Jesus.
A classic instance of warning came to a less-noted character, the wife of Pilate who sentenced Jesus to be crucified. She sent him a message while he was sitting on the judge’s seat, saying, “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him.” Most likely she would have foreseen the scenes of the crucifixion and the shed blood of the Saviour; but her message went unheeded.
Little did Pilate know that someday the roles would be reversed; “For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due to him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” There is no escaping this face to face encounter for it is written, “Just as man is destined to die once, after that to face judgement.” Surely then Pilate would remember his wife’s message regarding her dream.
Many individuals, both men and women, have encountered the Truth in dreams. In contrast many others like Pilate were unable to recognize the Truth even when he had a face to face encounter with him. When Jesus at the trial before his crucifixion stood before Pilate, he said, “For this reason I was born, for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me,” Pilate then asked in reply, “What is truth?”
He simply did not understand that Jesus is both the messenger as well as the message; he was not just speaking about the truth but he is the Truth by which standard all else will stand or fall someday in the future.
Bible Quotes from: Matthew 27:19, judgement seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10), Hebrews 9:27, John 18:37