I have been fortunate in being led to help people in finding relief, particularly from repeated, troubling dreams.
Most people struggle with the symbols in dreams, at first. But, hey, we live with symbols and use icons and logos all the time. Obviously a football team called “Tigers” are not really animals. But the name implies something for their fans, their opponents and themselves.
The Bible is rich in symbolism.
Dreams can show you some pretty unnatural behaviours such as a person morphing from one thing into another. That shouldn’t phase us either as screen adverts often use this technique. The morphing effect is also entirely divine (biblical), as we see in John’s apocalypse with a bride who morphs into a heavenly temple and later, a garden.
The reason for symbols or picture language is that we need to be an earnest participant in the Divine / human relationship. Jesus explains this to His earnest followers when they ask why others aren’t introduced to interpretations of parables. It’s a call to go deeper in enquiry to learn about the spiritual realm that is of God and not of dark things that can harm us. God doesn’t want a one-sided love. He is not one to force His love. That would be domestic abuse and He is not an abuser. Neither is He into the punishment of His children for the sake of hurting them – but more of this later, too.
We are meant to respond to dreams
But our Father God in Christ is no casual lover to throw His love to those who don’t want a two-way relationship. He responds to those who He sees are responding to Him.
Dreams often feature people who symbolise things other than themselves. They can feature death. This can alarm the dreamer. Most commonly the death of someone, or even a favourite pet in a dream is not a prediction of that person’s / pet’s death, but the “death” or end of something they symbolise. This is often the meaning of their name, but it can be their vocation. So, a doctor typically symbolises Jesus, the healer. But, let’s say, for example that you dream of your sister-in-law dying. No. It’s not a prediction of the woman dying at all. Most probably it has nothing whatsoever to do with that particular person. In fact, depending on other elements of the dream, this usually is one of the best dreams one can have. It means the death of legalism. That means an invitation to put an end to trying to be good and always feeling a failure because you can’t keep the rules. The terms “sister”, being “in law” and “death” in this case are all very common Bible symbols and things. The dream is saying your straining and failures are “finished”. A dream character may even say, “It is finished,” or “it is done”.
When I first started in what I call the Holy Spirit’s “Dream Ministry”, I had little idea of the richness of symbolism in Divine dreams. I knew there were symbols; but the extent of them and what they all meant came as the Holy Spirit took me through the dream foci and details as they appear in the Bible. I didn’t ask for dreams in prayers or ever think that dreams would continue to be a major study for me. It has been a fun study and I love working with the Holy Spirit who is a gentle and very patient teacher. What He loves is a persistent heart that is willing to push past any barrier to hear what the Divine Father is saying.
It all seemed to begin for me seven years ago. Actually, as the dreams persisted I began to see I had been prepared for this throughout my entire life. I even saw my life in symbolic form as stages of preparation – it appeared in dreams like a series of episodes. When the dreams themselves began, I had been praying earnestly, not because I was into religious rites. Nor did I have a diligent life of devotion in the religious sense. Actually, I was dealing with suppressed anger about the passage in John 14:23, where Jesus was dining with His friends just before His crucifixion. He said to them,
“‘If anyone loves Me, he will follow My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him.’”
Although I could read it there in black and white, I was disappointed because I felt it was not a 24/7 reality for me. I had been a Bible teacher for years, but my institutional church experiences were often a great disappointment to me because I knew there was a gigantic disconnect between what I read in the New Testament and what I had experienced in multiple denominations on Sunday mornings. So, when I prayed about the matter, I prayed in earnest. Surely, this God who had already answered so many prayers for me would help me work through this issue. Either God dwells inside each human heart as a reality, or it is just a nice platitude and churchianity veiled behind a frocked cleric is as near as you can get to the Divine. It was when my prayer became earnest that a specific dream began to visit me nightly.
At first I didn’t connect my prayer with any dream. Why would I? Dreams tend to perplex us and then vanish when our busy daily activities take over our lives. It would take repeated dreams for me to realise God was speaking to me. Just to me. It was to become personal. Amazingly God deigns to take up His throne in the heart of humans. We are to be His Holy temple! The temple of the Old Testament was only a symbol of this amazing spiritual truth to come with Jesus Christ.
We are not a building made with hands.
Not a physical building since the resurrection. Not a set of rules; but an intimate relationship.
It is not just a fanciful idea. He wants it to be a reality. He longs to dwell with us! Everyone! But this was 2016 when I had the first repeated dream. At the time I still held a dispensationalist / charismatic kind of view along with much of my former reformed theology from years in reformed churches. I had also been trained as a Pentecostal minister, and studied at a variety of seminary / colleges. None of these had given me the “breakthrough” into my spiritual or physical healing. Something was missing and I knew it wasn’t a trifle. I had no idea that my theology, despite qualifications, was a result of inherited centuries of ethical biblical and error.
The error is not really anyone’s deliberate “fault” most of the time. It’s more a “default” that people are born into. That’s because we think behaving ethically in our own strength, doing good as well as religious observance will please God. But it doesn’t. We just don’t get it. I thought I was saved by faith. But I had added churchianity into it. It was binding and blinding. It was a form of humanism, aka, legalism. I couldn’t understand what my blockage was and my prayers were getting insistent about it. I wouldn’t have admitted it at the time, but I was like a child with a parent using a demanding voice, “Please tell me!”
I didn’t take much notice of the first dream. I could see there were symbols, but they gave me no practical meaning. In the dream, there was a young woman who appeared in a lovely bright clean green uniform. It was a vivid green as if from a healthy garden. It was clean, neat and ironed. She would do everything just right with success. That, I found very annoying.[1] Dreams are commonly set with the key meanings in symbols as I have said and the green was so very vivid that I knew it meant something. I had taught literature for years and metaphor was not new to me.
When weird things happen in dreams, they can make one wonder if they are the result of too much pepperoni in the pizza the night before. But if we look at apocalyptic literature, as I have said, we can learn about this powerful means of expression that God often uses to communicate with His kids. I was yet to learn much of this. He uses exaggeration to make a point as hyperbole; also because the Holy Spirit has a sense of humour to share in relationship with us. And God has promised that He will communicate with His children in this way. It’s in Acts 2:17 quoting and verifying the promise in Joel 2:28.
Dreaming about a spotlessly clean person is a divine truth being conveyed – it often speaks of the regenerated spirit within a believer, even if their soul (mind, will and emotions) are struggling. The self often is presented as two or three separate entities. In this way, the Holy Spirit is showing us our true leader should be the new spirit within, and that is what should lead the “learner” soul or mind out of strife (see 2 Corinthians 5:16-21). See note at end.
At this beginning time and with the first set of dreams, the wretched “success” woman kept appearing night after night in the same dream pattern of my frustration. She was successful and I couldn’t get on at all. I was getting annoyed with her and her spotless outfit. What did green mean anyway? I knew the whole dream was full of symbols, but was it green for “Go”? If that was the interpretation I could plainly see I wasn’t allowed to move past “Go” myself and had been confined. Was I in spiritual “jail” and banned from collecting $200? This woman had the Monopoly.[2]
More desperate prayers ensued. They went something like this, “Please, please ….oh please explain this dream!” The next night I dreamt again as per usual and the same character came along and I (or, that is, my dream “self”) received a CD. (Back in 2016 we still used to access material via CD on our lap tops). As my dream-self inserted the CD, the door opened up to a vehicle and I was able, like the girl in green, to finally “Go” where I apparently needed to be. I went where she had gone – travelling. The dream left me travelling on a boat rather like a Sydney ferry. And I was aware of a group of school students lined up for class waiting to enter. Then the dream ended.
Shortly after that dream, a Christian neighbour gave me a CD to listen to. That was when I realised the dreams were in answer to my prayer. I duly listened to it hoping this may be key to John 14:23. Certainly, this CD spoke about expecting to hear from the Lord individually, personally and repeatedly. The key for me though, was that the speaker mentioned a minister online who had been led by the Lord into a ministry of helping people with biblical dreams. My ears pricked up and I listened most intently then. But I was very disappointed when I did an online search for his name to find he had passed away in the previous year. Nevertheless, his website had study material available and I searched these out. I felt I had at last found the “go” of my dream when the dreams about this topic ceased.
Then other dreams took their place. Now the dreams took on clear biblical names, characters and bible references. I had experienced a repeated dream before, but that was at the age of 27 – forty years beforehand. At the time I had taken it to my pastor who said it probably was the Lord speaking. In that original dream I had to climb a mountain. As I did so, I felt the closeness of an encouraging companion who was always by my side, but I didn’t see His face. After many struggles I got to the top of the mountain and discovered a celebratory party. End of dream. Once I talked the dream over with my pastor, the dream ceased to visit me. I had no idea of it being personally predictive as I had not yet had any experience with the charismata. And my church experience wasn’t extensive at that time. If I dreamt again over the next forty years, I didn’t recall the dreams as my life as a teacher meant being shocked awake daily by an alarm clock. The dreams of busy people can quickly recede into the valley of forgetfulness. They seemed unimportant as the busyness of life took centre stage.
But now, in retirement, and with the intense prayer, dreams became regular. The notions within the dreams, the emotions and vivid colours and conversations were so real, that I was waking up after each dream to write them down. I felt the Lord was going to answer my prayer about my relationship with Him – and what was missing.
We are meant to teach about divine dreaming and visions, like any other gift. The Bible is one third dreams and the consequences of those dreams and visions. They thread their way through its pages until they explode into vivid apocalypse in the Book of Revelation. We are meant to teach this night parable / communication Way of the Lord.
I would have liked some local pastoral help with my developing understanding of divine dreams. Yet I thought that if I asked church leaders about this phenomenon, they may think me strange, or irregular. And they did.
Since there was no help forthcoming from the church where I held a small women’s leadership position, it became difficult to get advice as to what was happening to me. However, having studied theology for years, I recognized the continually presented Bible types, names and situations in the dreams. I knew this was God. I knew it was the Holy Spirit, since even when the dreams brought personal correction, it was done with such kind gentleness, that I knew it couldn’t be from the evil one. And that the correction was about personal ills that I had never been either able to overcome or to understand – and some I hadn’t yet recognised – it also meant that Someone who knew me intimately was bringing me into more of the light of Christ.
As I was now approaching the dreams seriously, attending to the inherent Bible passages and applying myself to the study of dreams in the Bible, I began to understand the particular way the Holy Spirit can use dreams to guide one. I learnt that they are symbolic because the interpretation of dreams and parables is only given when one is diligent in seeking the Lord. He says this as God is no casual lover and responds to humility and our response to Him in turn. Matthew 13:10-15. But anyone is welcome to press in and seek more of the Lord.
[1] Frustration of one of your characters with the other: or when one of your “characters” is annoyed / disagreeable with the other – Romans 8:6 – “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,”
[2] Green is the colour of Judah’s stone, the emerald and identified with Jesus Christ. It is associated with the Royal Septre of Judah. Green is also the colour of grass which has been subject to light. Grass in dreams represents people. In particular, the colour green, when pure as it was in this dream, speaks of the pure and spotless Bride of Christ. In the Old Testament this was remnant Israel, awaitng Jesus. Now it is the spirit recreated within someone who desperately wants to be God’s child and has been regenerated by faith in Him. Their outer person or soul and thinking is not yet perfect, but their inner person or spirit is born again renewed as always perfect. ( In the New Testament this is the faithful disciples.) It is the photosynthesis colour compared by the prophets with dead trees and leaves / deserts etc., Jeremiah 11:16 “ The Lord named you
‘A green olive tree, beautiful in fruit and form’;”
