Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night or first thing in the morning and thought “Wow! What a great dream! That had to be from the Lord!”?
I don’t know about you, but I don’t often remember the dreams that I have at night. I’m not really sure as to why this is the case for me, but most mornings I wake up and go “Wow! I’m still tired!” Rarely, and I mean rarely, do I remember dreams from my sleep.
Recently, though, I’ve been remembering a couple.
I’d love to say that they were awesome. I’d love to say that they were a clear message from God. I’d love to paint you a picture of the way that heaven has opened up to me while I’ve slept. Not going to happen. Instead, let me tell you about them.
They start off in conflict. Good vs. Evil. Right vs. Wrong. Light vs. Dark. Winner vs. Loser. Of course, I’ve chosen the good side. I’m choosing to fight for what is right. Then, the battle begins.
“wwwwOOWWwww…WOOOOwwwwwwwOOOWwwww"
Lightsabers are unsheathed and begin to cut through the air.
“Ksssssssshhhhhh. Ksshhhh. Ksssssshhhhh.”
The red lightsaber (bad guy color) hits into my green one (good guy color).
Then, as the lightsaber battle is raging, I can hear in the background.
“Pew. Pew. Pew.” Blasters are shooting at something.
Finally, “KABLOOOOOOOOEEEEEYYYYY”.
The target has been destroyed. Mission has been accomplished. Good has won…but will I make it? Will I win the lightsaber battle? Will I save my family? Will I survive?
No idea. Never slept that long. The battle hangs in the balance.
I’ve had a dream similar to this on a couple of different occasions, and I have a very logical and good reason for having them. We’ve been watching the Star Wars movies. Not only that, but we’ve been watching them in the evening, shortly before bed.
No wonder I’m dreaming about Star Wars and lightsabers and blasters and all of that! I’m spending a fair amount of my attention and mental capacity on those themes before going to sleep. It makes sense that I would dream Star Wars dreams when we’ve been watching the movies.
Now, Star Wars dreams are fine. I’m sure that I can draw lessons from them and use them in my walk with God. (After all, I’m in a battle of good vs. evil. I have chosen the Good…more accurately, the Good has chosen me and I have responded. I will fight for my family and for their good. I will fight for the Lord. But am I relying on myself too much? Is there too much emphasis on me and my battle and not enough reliance on God? Is this why the dream ends that way? See…I told you I could draw a relationship to my life from even these dreams.) But, do you want to know what I’m more interested in?
Jesus Dreams.
Jesus Dreams. Dreams that come straight from the Spirit, the heart, the mind of God. Dreams that point to Jesus and are given by the very Spirit of God.
That’s what I want! Jesus Dreams.
Do you know what else? That’s what God wants for me too. Jesus Dreams, and not just at night. Jesus Dreams at night and during the day. God wants that for me. God wants that for you too. Don’t believe me? Check out what it says in Acts.
“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.
Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.”
~ Acts 2:17-18
In this passage of Scripture, Peter is quoting the prophet Joel. Joel had a vision of this happening in the future, of the Spirit of God being poured out on all people. Women, men. Old, young. Poor, rich. Black, red, purple, white. Doesn’t matter! All would be given the Spirit of God.
Peter quotes Joel, but he switches it up a bit. Instead of this being an event that is to take place in the future, Peter says, “Guess what? That future is here! That future is now! What used to only be hoped for in the future is now here in the present! The future of which Joel spoke is happening here, now, because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit has been given to us, and the Spirit is available to you too!” (Feel free to read more in Acts Chapter 2 for the actual account of how this all is said.)
Unfortunately, this passage has always troubled me a bit. I wonder, “Do we have this? Does it actually happen? Do we have our daughters and sons in the church prophesying? Do we have dreams and visions? Does God still move in this way? Do I see this evidenced in my own life?” Personally, when I consider the answers to those questions, it seems to be the exception instead of the norm. Sure, it might be possible for God to move in those ways, to speak in those ways, to give visions by day and dreams by night, but…
If I’m honest, I don’t see it happening often. I don’t hear about God moving in this way often. It is not the topic that I am frequently having in conversation. “Did I tell you the dream that God gave me the other night?” “Did I share the vision that I received from the Lord?”
Now, I don’t want to spend a lot of time with answering the “why” today. I don’t want for us to focus too much on why this isn’t the case or the reasons for it not being the case. Instead, I want to propose something: What if we asked? What if we asked God? What if we sought the Lord and asked for the Holy Spirit to direct us in this way?
After all, God has given us his Spirit when we have accepted his Son. God has promised in Joel that there would be a time when this would occur. God shows us in Acts that the time is now. What if we asked God to move in this way?
As we lay down for bed in the evening, what if we prayed, “God please inhabit my dreams.”? As we woke up in the morning and walked through the day, what if we asked, “God, please give me a vision for what I need to do today. God, please direct my path.”? As we meet with people and share our lives with others, what if we silently petitioned, “God, please direct me by your Spirit that I might speak a word of truth to this person in this conversation.”? What if we asked?
What if we asked?
What if God answered?
What if God enabled us to be more sensitive to the Holy Spirit? What if God showed us a vision for our life? For our church? For our neighborhood? For our family?
What if God gave us a dream of how things could be different? (And not just some selfish dream of owning a private jet and scooting off to some tropical island in the winter.) But what if God gave us dreams? Spoke to us even in our sleep?
What if we asked?
What if we God answered?
Sure, we might be disappointed. It is possible that God won’t answer in the way we hope. Sure, we might get something wrong. We might interpret a dream to mean a certain thing, but it actually just means we shouldn’t have eaten that chili-cheese burrito right before bed. Sure, some might thing we’re “woo-woo” or a little “off”. After all, we’re talking about God doing something in our lives. There will always be those who think such a thing is wacky. Still, even in those cases, isn’t that a risk worth taking?
Now, just so we’re clear, we can’t be putting these things above our relationship with the Lord. The Giver, and our relationship with the Giver, needs to be more important than the gifts. Even if we never have a dream for the rest of our lives, never see a vision, never receive a word of prophesy, never display a sign or a wonder through us, we still need to seek God more than any of those things. Even so, what if we asked?
Friend, my prayer is that as we live our lives that we wouldn’t just kind of bounce along aimlessly, but that each day would draw us closer to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. My prayer, friend, is that we would see the movement of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and that this movement would point to Jesus Christ. My prayer, friend, is that we would realize that this passage of Scripture in Acts is true. That God has sent us the Holy Spirit, that the Spirit has been offered and poured out upon all who believe in Jesus Christ, that we dream dreams. Jesus Dreams. That we see visions. Jesus Visions. That our relationship with God is something that pours into and out of our whole, entire lives…so much so that even when we’re sleeping we’re being influenced by God.
~ Pastor Chris
