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Dreams
- Thread starter Salty
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GoodTidings
Well-Known Member
He has given us His Word. He speaks to us through the Scriptures.
Yes... and he speaks to us in many ways... every day
Sure he does. Acts 2:17
GoodTidings
Well-Known Member
God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
(Heb 1:1-2)
God has nothing to say to us apart from Jesus. Supernatural dreams and visions were necessary at one time, but everything that God needs to say to us has been said through Jesus in the Bible.
I would never trust in someone else's "vision" or "dream." A lot of false teaching has its origin in "I had a dream..."
(Heb 1:1-2)
God has nothing to say to us apart from Jesus. Supernatural dreams and visions were necessary at one time, but everything that God needs to say to us has been said through Jesus in the Bible.
I would never trust in someone else's "vision" or "dream." A lot of false teaching has its origin in "I had a dream..."
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I have heard first hand accounts of men who had never heard the Gospel Preached being led to hearing The Gospel through dreams.
Acts 2:17?
I have heard first hand accounts of men who had never heard the Gospel Preached being led to hearing The Gospel through dreams.
Yes. The number of Muslims who have converted after having dreams where Jesus appears to them is impressive.
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It's true that He does. Although God can speak to us in any way He pleases. There is nothing in scripture that limits God.
MB
There is no restrictions on how and when God communicates. The very act of the Holy Spirit using the Word to make a believer may more often include the validation of the truth by personal experiences being rebuked.
Believers seek answers to prayers. If all answers and communication was found in Scriptures that cuts the communication line. There is no need to petition or plead the response of God.
Dreams may certainly be the carrier that brings an answer as the believer whose heart and mind is cleansed by the work of the Word and the Holy Spirit makes requests acceptable.
“I have a dream...”
Every believer has had that time God gives a response. It more often occurs when we are unaware of our surroundings and in helpless rest. There, abiding in Him, filled with His Spirit, our hearts and minds may certainly have visions of righteousness, answers of assurance, and strength of hope.
Anyone ever used: “God lead me,...”. “God spoke to me....”. “God showed me...”.
Btw, the Holy Spirit may certainly use dreams to show areas needing cleaned, shored up, forgiven ...
Do not ignore dreams, for more often they are windows into the areas needing the work of the Holy Spirit and in The World.
Believers seek answers to prayers. If all answers and communication was found in Scriptures that cuts the communication line. There is no need to petition or plead the response of God.
Dreams may certainly be the carrier that brings an answer as the believer whose heart and mind is cleansed by the work of the Word and the Holy Spirit makes requests acceptable.
“I have a dream...”
Every believer has had that time God gives a response. It more often occurs when we are unaware of our surroundings and in helpless rest. There, abiding in Him, filled with His Spirit, our hearts and minds may certainly have visions of righteousness, answers of assurance, and strength of hope.
Anyone ever used: “God lead me,...”. “God spoke to me....”. “God showed me...”.
Btw, the Holy Spirit may certainly use dreams to show areas needing cleaned, shored up, forgiven ...
Do not ignore dreams, for more often they are windows into the areas needing the work of the Holy Spirit and in The World.
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GoodTidings
Well-Known Member
That verse is not about communicating to us through dreams and visions as rule for the Christian life. It is actually speaking about the millennium and we know that because God has not yet poured out His Spirit upon all flesh. Pentecost in Acts 2 was a foretaste of what God is going to do during Christ's millennial reign.
Even in the Bible, we see that dreams and visions were reserved for the prophets and the apostles. It was not a normal occurrence in NT times and it is not a normal occurrence in our day, either. We don't see, recorded in the NT, where the Christian community at large was suddenly having visions and dreams. What we have recorded in the NT is God operating through visions or dreams with Peter and Paul in their apostolic ministries.
Our theology should come from the Bible, not from somone's dreams and visions. I am very leery of claims about visions and dreams, even alleged dreams from people who claim they had a vision of Jesus before they were saved.
GoodTidings
Well-Known Member
God communicates through the only means we have of knowing that it is Him doing the talking. I cannot trust someone else's claim that God spoke to them through vision. I cannot necessarily test that claim. But I can test and prove what the Bible says. The Bible is 100% guaranteed. Someone's alleged vision isn't.
GoodTidings
Well-Known Member
The Bible has the answer to every need of the human heart. God does communicate with us and He leads us through the Holy Spirit who lives within us. I don't need a vision when I am indwelt and in communion with the very Creator of the universe.
Not true. My heart is slowly failing, the Bible does not address the need.
When a believer is at rest, the brain doesn’t shut off. As the sleep cycles through the stages, dreams occur. More often these expose that which is hidden from public view. Areas that need attending in submission to the work and Word.
The question is not what you need, but in what the Holy Spirit chooses to goad you into searching out in the Scriptures.
For example, dreams of grandeur or persecution may indicate a certain lack in reliance. Dreams of inappropriate erotic things may indicate danger.
Too often when awake, the self censorship is turn on and one does not even realize a little fox has slipped under the fence. Or such is dismissed as just another thwarted enemy attack.
But the Holy Spirit, while we are at rest, may return raising an alarm, granting us assurance, providing hope, or a host of other needs in which without dreams would not be realized.
There will be no need for dreams and visions in the millennium. That will truly be "face to face".
That verse does not say "God has nothing to say to us apart from Jesus". That is an incorrect interpretation of that passage. For instance Peter had a dream and that since the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. I do believe if someone said they had a dream or vision it would need to be measured against scripture. The abuse of dreams and visions is not a reason to object to them.
I wasn't saying you have to trust someone else's vision. However if you had one that God spoke to you and what He said lined up with scripture maybe you had better believe it.
MB
Just the apostles in the NT, huh?...
Stephen "full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven. He saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. He said, 'Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!'" Acts 7:55-56
Zacharias (father of John the Baptist) "could not speak to them. Then they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. He was making signs to them and remained speechless." Lk 1:22
Cornelius "saw in a vision an angel of God who came in and said to him, 'Cornelius.'" Acts 10:3
Pilate's wife "suffered terribly in a dream because of Him." Matt. 27:19
the Wise Men "being warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their own country by another route." Matt. 2:12
Ananias "In Damascus there was a certain disciple named Ananias. The Lord spoke to him in a vision, 'Ananias!' He answered, 'Yes, Lord.'" Acts 9:10
Joseph "being warned in a dream, he withdrew to the region of Galilee. And...went and lived in a town called Nazareth." Matt. 2:22-23
...
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GoodTidings
Well-Known Member
My point was these are not normal in that we don't see them occurring as a normal part of the Christian life. Zecharias was actually visited by an angel. It wasn't a mere vision of an angel. God worked in dreams and visions then, but we are not to treat them as part of the regular Christian experience. In NT times, there was no complete canon, and so there were visions and dreams, but even then they were rare AND they were not revelatory in the case of Cornelius, Ananias, the wise men, pilate's wife, or Zecharias.
What we see today are people trying to use their alleged visions or dreams as a means of teaching something. We have the indwelling Holy Spirit to speak to us and His primary mode of speaking to us is through the illumination of God's word to our hearts.
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