Seeing God in Dreams and Visions

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. 11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 There above it stood the LORD, and he said: “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. 15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

18 Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. 19 He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz.

20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear 21 so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the LORD will be my God 22 and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.” (Genesis 28:10-22, NIV)


REFLECTIONS:
I hate to admit this, but I tend to be a skeptic when I hear stories of people receiving visions or dreams from God. I can acknowledge, in my mind, that it's possible for God to communicate to through dreams; but I must admit that there is quite a bit of skepticism that arises within me when I hear people speak of their personal dreams and visions. I don't mean to be skeptical, that's just my natural, automatic tendency. But, it ought not to be.

Any plain reading of Scripture reveals that God showed up in people's lives a gazillion times through the vehicle of dreams and visions. Today's Scripture is a classic biblical example, and a more extensive (but still incomplete) list of Scriptures is provided below. So, the question I have to ask myself is: If God spoke through visions and dreams in days of old, who's to say that he can't or won't do so today? 

………

A striking modern-day example is the experience of writer Brennan Manning. In his book A Glimpse of Jesus, Manning describes an experience that took place while he was praying in his room at a retreat center and feeling overcome with self-hatred, a litany of his sins playing in his head: 

Praying over the passage of the washing of the feet (John 13:1-17), I was suddenly transported in faith into the Upper Room, where I took Judas's place among the Twelve. The Servant, who had tied a towel around his waist, poured water from a pitcher into a copper basin and reached out to wash my feet (the dress and duty those of the slave). Involuntarily I pulled my foot back. I couldn't look at him. I had betrayed the vision, been unfaithful to my dream (and thus unfaithful to his plan for my life).

 

Sensing my dismay, he placed his hand on my knee and said, "Brennan, do you know what these years together have meant to me? You were being held even when you didn't believe I was holding you. I love you, my friend."

 

Tears rolled down my cheeks. "But Lord, my sins, my repeated failures, my weaknesses…"

 

"I understand. Brennan, I expected more failure from you than you expected from yourself." He smiled. "And you always came back. Nothing pleases me as much as when you trust me, when you allow that my compassion is bigger than your sinfulness."

 

"But Jesus, what about my irritating character defects—the boasting, the inflating of the truth, the pretense of being an intellectual, the impatience with people, and all the times I drank to excess?"

 

"What you are saying is true. But your love for me has never wavered: your heart has remained pure. What's more, even in the darkness and confusion, you've always done something that overshadowed all the rest. You were kind to sinners."

 

I cried—so loudly that the retreatant in the adjacent room knocked on the door to ask if I was all right.

 

"Now I'll go," Jesus said. "I just washed your feet. Do the same for others. Serve my people humbly and lovingly. You will find happiness if you do. Peace, my friend."

………

 

There is absolutely no reason to assume that God has ceased communicating with us through visions and dreams. If he spoke to people in the Bible through visions, surely he can do so today. Indeed, unless we assume people such as Brennan Manning are deranged or lying, we can say that God has definitely not stopped communicating with his people through dreams and visions. In fact, based on the number of stories we hear, he does so rather regularly.

 

One of the things that makes my natural skepticism so maddeningly ironic (at least to me) is that I myself have experienced a "vision" from God. (I suppose my skepticism rears its ugly head because I fail to regularly remember or reflect upon my experience of God.)

 

I had been unable to sleep that night, frustrated and angry at my continued paralysis. For five or six years, I had begged and pleaded with God for healing, fully expecting that he would miraculously move in my life for his glory. But, here I was, still stuck in a broken and crippled body. Why hadn't God healed me? Didn't Jesus say something like "Everything is possible for one who believes" (Mark 9:23)? Hadn't he promised that "whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours" (Mark 11:23-24)? Hadn't he cast aside all parameters when he declared: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened" (Matthew 7:7-8)? I had asked with as much faith as I could muster. With every ounce of my being, I had believed that God would heal me. I had asked. I had sought. I had knock knock knocked on heaven’s door. So, why hadn't he come through? Why hadn't he kept his promise?

 

I was lying on my bed in the middle of the night, griping and complaining to God. I was angry. I was frustrated. I was losing my faith. And I wanted him to know exactly how hacked off I was. I didn't hold anything back. Years of heartache and pain mingled with my disappointment and cries of complaints gushed from my heart. "You lied, God! You made a promise, and you failed to keep it! You can't be trusted!"… "Why have you failed me? Why have you abandoned me? Why have you turned your back on me?"… "Where are you when I need you?"

 

Somewhere along the way, I began to sense that I was not alone. I wondered if one of my parents had stepped into my room to check on me. (Their bedroom was adjacent to mine.) I opened my eyes, sat up as best I could, and looked around the room, checking for figures in the dark. I could not see anyone. But I felt someone. The feeling was so intense, so palpable that I struggle to find words to describe it fully. My body was tingling. My hair was on end. My heart was racing. Slowly, I began to realize that the Person in my room was Jesus. I saw no light. I heard no words. I saw no vision of his likeness. But I knew that it was he. Deep down in the core of my being, in my heart of hearts, I knew that it was Jesus. Slowly but surely, my heart began to flood with peace. I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to do. So I just lay there, soaking in the presence of the living God.

 

The next thing I knew, my father was waking me up. It was a new day—literally and figuratively. Where once there had been turmoil and pain and confusion, now there resided a peace and contentment that was beyond expression. I no longer questioned God's love for me. Now I knew that I was loved, that I was cared for, that I was treasured. Now I knew that I was not alone, that I was not forgotten. Now I knew that God could be trusted. He had come to meet with me. He had touched me in such a way that I was healed in the deepest place of my being. Though still stuck in a broken and crippled body, I was made well. I was made whole.

 

………

 

When it comes to dreams and visions, we cannot predict, initiate, or even prompt them. Amazingly, they seem to come to those with exemplary prayer lives (such as Manning), as well as those who strike us more as exemplary sinners (such as Jacob), as well as normal Joe's like myself. Perhaps emotional states, like distress or desperation, or preparation, such as long periods of prayer or fasting (Daniel 10:2-3), make us more receptive to such communications, but there is no guarantee that any action on our part can provoke a dream or vision from God. Dreams and visions are yet another area in which we must submit to God's control. Unlike many other ways of communicating with God, we cannot initiate or even practice communicating with God in this way. All we can do is stay open to the possibility.

 

So, we cannot initiate or prompt a dream or vision from God. However, that doesn't mean there is nothing we can do. It's important what we remember that all ways of communicating with God are interrelated. As we grow closer to God in prayer, by study of the Scriptures, appreciation of his creation, and participating in corporate worship, we open ourselves to other ways of experiencing him. Commitment and intention of the heart are important. Some words of Thomas Merton regarding the subject of "contemplation" are appropriate here: 

The fact remains that contemplation will not be given to those who willfully remain at a distance from God, who confine their interior life to a few routine exercises of piety and a few external acts of worship and service performed as a matter of duty. Such people are careful to avoid sin. They respect God as a Master. But their hearts do not belong to Him. They are not really interested in Him, except in order to insure themselves against losing heaven and going to hell. In actual practice, their minds and hearts are taken up with their own ambitions and troubles and comforts and pleasures and all their worldly interest and anxieties and fears. God is only invited to enter this charmed circle to smooth out difficulties and to dispense rewards.

Ouch! Ouch! Double-ouch!

 

Who doesn't feel the sting of these words? A relationship of intimate communion with God is possible, but it requires investment and sacrifice on our part. Some of us may never experience the kind of dreams or visions detailed in the Scripture. In fact, we can be certain that God will not communicate with us exactly the way he communicated with Jacob or Brennan Manning. But the good news is that if we open our hearts and minds to him, we can expect God to communicate with us in some way, maybe even through visions or dreams or other spiritual experiences.

 

 

POINT OF ACTION:

On the day of Pentecost after the resurrection of Jesus and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples, the apostle Peter quoted the prophet Joel in his sermon to the crowd that gathered: 

In the last days, God says,
    I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
    your young men will see visions,
    your old men will dream dreams… (Acts 2:17; Joel 2:28)

In spite of this clear promise, many Christians today do not believe that God reveals himself through dreams and visions. Since the skepticism about dreams and visions in Christianity runs so deep, and it is impossible to design an exercise that will enable all of us to experience dreams or visions from God, I'd like to suggest that we read some scriptures that describe such experiences. (A suggested list is provided below.) As you read the passages, think about what characteristics, if any, differentiate a vision from a dream. Also pay attention to the relationship between God and the person who receives the dream or vision, and how the person responds to the communication.

Dreams and Visions
Genesis 15	Isaiah 6	Matthew 1:20-24
Genesis 20:1-7	Jeremiah 38:19-23	Matthew 2:12-23
Genesis 31:10-13	Ezekiel 1	Matthew 17:1-13
Genesis 37:1-11	Ezekiel 8-11	Matthew 27:19
Genesis 40	Ezekiel 40-48	Acts 9:10-19
Genesis 41:1-40	Daniel 2:1-48	Acts 10:9-33
Genesis 46:1-4	Daniel 4:4-27	Acts 16:9-10
Joshua 5:13-15	Daniel 7	Acts 18:9-11
Judges 7:13-15	Daniel 8	Revelation
1 Kings 3:4-15	Daniel 10
Psalm 89:19	Zechariah 1:1-6:8

 

PRAYER:
To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
Make me to know your ways, O Lord;
    teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth, and teach me,
    for you are the God of my salvation;
    for you I wait all day long.
“Come,” my heart says, “seek his face!”
    Your face, Lord, do I seek.
Give ear to my words, O Lord;
    give heed to my sighing.
Listen to the sound of my cry,
    my King and my God,
    for to you I pray.


WHO AM I?
I am Tres Sansom, and I'm wondering if anyone else is currently singing the old Guns N Roses song "Knockin’ on Heaven's Door"?