Dream Interpretation: Understanding Your Dreams

Well, let's start off with looking at what the Bible says that a dream is. In Job 33:15 NLT, it says:

“He [God] speaks in dreams, in visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they lie in their beds.”

Several things are said in this verse. The first thing that is said is that a dream is specifically a 'vision of the night'. We can also see in this verse, that dreams occur when someone falls into a deep sleep. It also says, that God can speak to us in our dreams while we sleep.

The Bible also makes a distinction between a vision and a dream. A VISION is something that happens when someone is awake (Acts 10:9-23, Revelation 1:9-11). A DREAM is something that happens when someone is sleeping (Job 33:15, Genesis 40:5-19, Matthew 1:20-24).

Dreams are a very powerful part of our spiritual life. They can reveal details of what is about to happen, they can show us what has already occurred, and they can also remind us of events or things that have taken place in the past. Dreams can also reveal situations you are currently dealing with.

A healthy dream life, whether all your dreams are good or bad, shows that your inner spirit is very alert to what is taking place in the spirit realm around you.  

Scripture tells us in Matthew 6:22 that when we absolutely see the ‘truth’, God’s light enters in and fills our whole body. Then we see in Proverbs 20:27 how God uses that light to examine the inward workings of our lives to show us what we need to know about ourselves in order to correct it. 

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Proverbs 20:27 TPT

"The spirit God breathed into man  is like a living lamp, a shining light searching into the innermost chamber of our being."

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When you dream, you are seeing past the natural realm and all of the distractions of life, straight into the spirit realm where nothing can be hidden, and where everything in your life first manifests. Because of this, you can somewhat see that dreams are a very important part of your life. But now you need to know what the purpose of having dreams is...so keep reading!

Dreams are generally used by God, as is His Word, to communicate the following:

1. Correction

2. Warning

3. Revelation

4. Encouragement

We can see several reasons through the Bible how dreams were used by God to communicate a message to someone. Joseph had dreams that basically revealed that God was going to promote him and take care of him. Which was good for him to know because of everything that ended up happening in his life! And in the book of Daniel (Daniel chapter 4), we can see that King Nebuchadnezzar was warned by God in a dream that was interpreted by Daniel. After hearing the King's dream, Daniel told King Nebuchadnezzar that he needed to repent of his sins before it was too late for him to do so.

And if we look again at Job 33, we can see a description of a few purposes that our dreams can have.

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Job 33:14-18 NLT

“For God speaks again and again, though people do not recognize it. He speaks in dreams, in visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they lie in their beds. He whispers in their ears and terrifies them with warnings. He makes them turn from doing wrong; he keeps them from pride. He protects them from the grave, from crossing over the river of death.”

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This is why it is so important to pay attention to your dreams! I mean, sure God can tell you good things are on the way, and those dreams are such a blessing. But with some dreams revealing bad choices that we are potentially making that we may not even see as bad choices, we truly need to pay attention to the dreams that we have.

Personally, I have had dreams that revealed that I was doing something that I did not think was a big deal, but that the thing I was doing was damaging my ability to see the harm that was coming my way. So, you can imagine that I made absolute sure to alter the thing that I was doing so I did not bring harm to myself somewhere down the road. The dream that I just mentioned was a dream in which I was parking my car in a parking spot next to another vehicle, and I thought I had parked ok, and in the dream I thought, "nah its fine. No big deal!" but in the process of parking, I had knocked the sideview mirror off my vehicle! What is a side view mirror used for? It is used to see potential incoming hazards while on the road. And if you make a decision that breaks that mirror off, then you will be hindering your ability to see danger coming your way. I took this dream to heart! I definitely don't want anything that i do haphazardly to hinder my ability to see danger coming somewhere down the road in my life.

Now think about that interpretation for a moment! How many times have you had a similar dream? Pay attention to things like this. God may be trying to tell you something.

The love language of Heaven is robust and poetic. It's composed of images and sounds, and emotion - it can often involve all of your senses! 

Our dreams are given to us in the unmistakable language of Heaven. Our dreams are essentially little image filled stories that are meant to convey an important message to us while we are asleep. Even Jesus communicated many of His messages in this way! He was able to get His point across more effectively by using ‘parables’ which painted a picture in a way that opened the listener’s spiritual eyes to the truth that He was delivering on a subject. The imagery that parables present have the unique ability to cut straight to the chase and deliver a specialized message directly to one's spirit!  

We see a lot of talk these days in certain circles about using something known as a dream symbols dictionary to help determine the meaning of the many different elements that can be seen in our dreams. But while they can be a useful tool at times, if the Holy Spirit leads you to use one of these dictionaries, you must know that the symbols in your dreams are typically very personal in nature. As we have already discussed, different symbols may mean different things for different people. So, it is very important to allow the interpretation of your own dreams to be totally lead by the Holy Spirit. 

If I could impart to you what I see as the most important parts of learning how to understand your dreams, it would be this: 

1. You must learn to understand the Language of Heaven

2. You must allow yourself to be led by the Holy Spirit

 Ask Him for help! He will lead you and show you what you need to know. If you feel your dream was especially important and maybe even urgent and you really need to know what it meant, the Holy spirit will reveal it to you. After He does, just follow His lead. His leading won't always be an audible voice. Often times it will be a slight nudging to investigate the different elements of your dream in a certain way - comparing each element to what is currently going on in your life, then going to Scripture and going to prayer about the matter. After that, Holy Spirit will begin to give you little promptings until what you need to know is revealed. At other times, His response will be more obvious and you will hear Him speak the interpretation to you in your spirit - giving you instructions, direction and/or revelation! Finally, If you suspect your dream involves the distant future, full revelation may take time. If that is indeed the case, the full meaning will only be understood as time passes and each dream element unfolds.

Your body may be asleep, but your spirit never sleeps! In fact, sometimes one of the only ways that God can get through to some people is when their flesh gets out of the way in this way. When all of life’s daily functions are put to rest, He is able to speak to your spirit about what He wants you to know.

And the dreams that we have contain personal elements in them that are able to communicate something directly to you with a meaning that is designed JUST FOR YOU.

 I don't think I have to tell you that it is not exactly the most convenient thing to have to find a person to interpret every dream you may have.  This is one of the reasons why learning to understand your own dreams is so very important! I would recommend to anyone that desires to have a better understanding of their dreams to ask for wisdom from God to see the things that God wants them to see, and to understand the things that He wants them to understand. We all need a good dose of supernatural wisdom from God to gain an understanding of the language of Heaven so that we can clearly know the meaning of all that is presented to us in our dreams! We all need wisdom to be able to discern the meaning of the individual elements that our dreams are filled with. This doesn't mean that you won't ever need to go to someone else for help in understanding certain elements of a dream. And there may come times where the dream you have either contains a message for someone else, or contains an element that a certain person will be able to identify and ‘translate’ for you.  

In fact, to this day, I will sometimes have a dream and when I ask God about it His immediate response is, “Call your mother and tell her about your dream.” And without fail, the insight she provides always connects the dots in some way. And, as I mentioned, sometimes the message is for her or both of us at the same time. God is so amazing! 

I already said this part before, but it fits here also...Basically, if you have a dream that you feel was important and you want to know what it meant, then ask the Holy spirit to reveal to you the meaning of it. After that, you just follow His lead, and you will receive the revelation that you need. His lead won't always be an audible voice. It will often times be a slight nudging to investigate the different elements of your dream in a certain way. and you just follow those little promptings until you reach the revelation that you need. And then sometimes, His response will be more obvious and you will here Him speak to you in your spirit, with either an instruction, or with the interpretation of the dream's message!

I had a dream one time that really bothered me. And the morning I woke up from the dream, God kept telling me to tell my husband about it. So I told him. And He had a shocked look on his face and said that he dreamed the exact dream I had with one of the elements reversed - which when we looked at both dreams we realized that the dream was about me and a decision I had to make. I am not sure I would have paid attention to that dream if he didn't have the same dream the same night as me. Believe me when I tell you that God truly seeks to get through to us with specific messages for us as we go through the many stages and steps in our lives. But we must be tuned in to not only what He is saying to us, but also HOW He is saying it.

The answer to this question is neither yes or no. And as I have said, the individual elements of your dream may have a specific meaning to you when to another person those same elements may mean something entirely different. 

EXAMPLE:

For example, let's say you have a person that loves dogs and they dream about a bunch of dogs. To that person, the dogs may mean something that they truly love, care about or that is good. And then you may have another person that is terrified of dogs and the dogs in their dream will mean something negative. But the Biblical meaning of dreaming about a dog, as outlined in a Biblical Dream Symbol Dictionary, reads as follows:

“Dog - seeing a dog in a dream can symbolize ungrateful, worldly people, or evil men, Ps 22:16, Matt. 7:6. Growling dogs can be demonic sentries sent to guard things. Your pet dog may appear in a dream because you are worried about the health of your pet. Dogs may also be representative of fears about being bitten or attacked by dogs”

Because of the wide array of potential interpretations that can be had about any given subject, you will need to develop the ability to discern what individual elements mean to YOU personally. As you seek wisdom from the Lord to understand your dreams more and more, you will learn what to do as you go along, and you will learn where you need to go for the interpretation, or meaning, for each element of your dream. 

It may seem complicated at first, but the more you work to interpret your own dreams with help from the Holy Spirit, as well as the backing of the Word, the more you will begin to see patterns and messages that will make them easier and easier to understand. Eventually the day will arrive when you wake up from having a dream and you just know what it means.  

I believe that biblical symbol dream dictionaries can be a very useful tool. However, you should not get into the habit of soley leaning on them for the interpretation of all of your dreams. Dreams can have so many moving parts, and will often times have a certain level of depth that plain-as-day meanings don't always fit. So, do your best to learn to discern the imagery that you saw with the help of the Holy Spirit and the Word. And if you ever feel like you need the help of a dream dictionary, then use it…but run what it says past God. 

That being said, you don't just want to Google the meaning of something in your dream because there's a lot of New Age stuff out there that will come up immediately in the search results, and they are WAY off. The only dream symbol dictionary that I will personally recommend right now is this one by Tyler Wolfe:

http://christiandreamsymbols.com/

But please note, that I am not advising you to use a Biblical Symbols Dream Dictionary by itself to interpret your dreams. It’s only one tool.

Yeah, I think we have all had those types of dreams. The kind of dream where a hedgehog dressed as a clown is sawing down a pine tree in your back yard while singing 'Yankee Doodle'.

Though some have refuted the link between foods and wild dreams, there is still supporting evidence that certain types of food can definitely cause an uptick in dreams such as this while you sleep. Some foods, like dairy, spicy foods, chocolate, and candy have even been known to cause an increase in vivid and detailed dreams for some people. Some other people find that these types of foods always cause them to experience nightmares if they eat them too close to bedtime. 

But why? Well, there really needs to be more studies done on this subject, because so much of the data that is available tends to be anecdotal at best, but there are definitely a lot of personal accounts of having intense dreams after consuming a variety of the aforementioned foods.

As I said, there is not a whole lot of solid data out there, but what is out there suggests that when your body breaks down certain foods, there are chemicals that are sometimes released in your brain, such as is the case when you eat dairy, which contains tryptophan. And if you were not aware of it, tryptophan can help to assist the the brain in the production and release of serotonin which actually can help you fall asleep. There is also evidence that eating spicy foods can affect your REM (rapid eye movement) cycle of sleep, and as a result, it may affect the dreams that you have. The category of foods that seem to be the most linked to disturbing or nightmarish dreams are carbohydrates and sugars, with sugars seeming to be one of the worst stimulants for bad dreams. And if you didn't already know it, carbs are broken down by your body into sugar. So if you want to avoid having upsetting dreams, then I would suggest avoiding these types of foods close to bed time - especially if you feel they have had a negative influence on your dreams!

When you don’t have dreams, that is not a good thing. Having a lack of a ‘dream life’ can cause you to miss out on important input and direction that the Lord wants to give you to help you navigate through your life. It is crucial for you to address the issue of not dreaming as soon as you recognize that there is an issue.

And you may be thinking, "What is causing me to not have dreams?"

Well, there could be a few things going on here.

One issue to consider could be your gut health. There have been numerous studies that have connected the state of someone's gut health and their dreams. This is why some people will find that when they begin taking probiotics, they suddenly beginning dreaming more or they begin having dreams that are very vivid and unusual. As we already discussed food can affect your dreams! Likewise, gut health can as well. I won't go into a deep discussion about why this is, but I will encourage you to do some research and consider this as a possible cause of why you aren't dreaming. Similarly, it may be possible for certain medications to affect the frequency (or types) of your dreams. Though, I would not abruptly discontinue taking any medication that your doctor has prescribed to you in an effort to see if it affects your dreams, as this could have some serious medical consequences. If you feel that medication that you are taking may be hindering your dreams, then you can pray and ask God to bypass the effects that the medication may be having on you, and tell Him you want to dream again! And of course if you have any concerns about the effects of any prescribed medication, then please be sure to discuss those concerns with your doctor or medical professional. 

The other thing that could be going on, is something spiritual in nature. Where you are having dreams, but you forget them quickly. I encourage you to begin prayer to break any attack against your dreams so that you can effectively hear from God. And I will go into another prayer for certain types of dreams here soon, but for now, the following is specifically for those of you who are not having dreams for one reason or another.

— PRAYER FOR DREAMS —

If you are not having dreams but you want to have dreams, or you want to dream more, or you want to remember your dreams — then please say this prayer OUT LOUD:

God, I want to start dreaming (or begin dreaming again). I want to hear from you and receive the direction that I need from you in my life. I ask that you would remove every hinderance that may be blocking my dreams, and allow me not only to dream dreams but to also remember them. Right now, any spirit that is interfering with my dream life - causing me to not dream, or causing me to forget my dreams upon awakening I command you to break your hold over my mind and body; whether you are interfering with my dreams through medication, through a health condition in my body, or through waging a spiritual attack against my dreams for the fun of it - you will not interfere with the voice of God in my dreams any longer! I render your assignment against my dream life null and void, in Jesus Name! I command you, by the Mighty Name of Jesus to leave me and return to the abyss where you came from and do not come back!

And lastly, God, I ask that you would revive my dream life so that I will not miss out on any important messages and instructions that I need in my life from you. I ask that you would also guide me by your Word, and your Spirit in the understanding of the meaning of my dreams. I submit myself to your perfect leadership, and I promise to follow you as you lead me.

I request all of these things of you in Jesus' Name, and I thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Amen.

All in all, if you would like to have dreams, you absolutely can ask God for them! At the end of the day, He really wants to talk to you, and when you want that also, it's a win-win situation! If you ask Him to show you things, He will do it!

You can ABSOLUTELY ask God for dreams! As we have already covered, God wants to talk to you. He wants to lead you in the right path in your life. He tells us this in Psalm 32:8 AMP,

 “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you [who are willing to learn] with My eye upon you.”

If you are willing to learn to work with God over the contents of your dreams by asking Him to reveal the meaning of their symbolism, He WILL reveal to you the messages that He is trying to communicate to you through your dreams. And as a result, You will be able to receive the divine council that you need from Him through those dreams. So, yes, you can ask Him for dreams if you want more of them. I will add, that while dreams can be a very helpful source of help from God, it is NOT the only way we are supposed to hear from God. Not everything that we get from the Lord will be in dream form, so don't expect to ONLY hear from Him through your dreams. BUT, if you would like an increase in dreams in your life, then ask God for more! He will do it. Receiving and understanding dreams are an important part of your spiritual walk but it must always but mixed with the guidance we receive from the Word of God, and the voice of the Holy Spirit.

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Psalms 16:7 TPT

 “The way you counsel me makes me praise you more, for your whispers in the night give me wisdom, showing me what to do next.”

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As outlined here on this page, there are many things you can to do help develop your dream life. But right after asking the Lord for more dreams and sharing with Him your own personal desire to hear from Him through those dreams, a next step is to get a pencil and paper and place them on your nightstand. You must make it the intention of your heart that whenever you do have a dream, you will write it down immediately. This action is a clear message to God of your intent to take what He shows you through your dreams seriously. And the act of setting out the writing tools to record the dreams that you are expecting to receive from God shows that you are having FAITH that He is going to give you the dreams that you have requested (See James 2:14)! We can see in multiple places in the Bible that God is more moved by a person's faith, than He is moved by a person's need or desire for something. 

When you do wake up from a dream, you want to make sure you write it down immediately upon waking, because if you wait even a few minutes, you may forget your dream forever (it's true)! I have had some amazing dreams that after waking up from them, I told myself, "I'm too comfortable and sleepy to write right now, I'll write this dream down later." In those moments, I felt that the dreams I had were so incredible, that I assumed I would never forget them! But, sadly, when I went to write down any of those dreams even an hour later, the dreams had completely left my mind. At the time, I would try so very hard to remember even the general context of the dream I had, but to no avail. Please believe me when I tell you that you must write your dreams down AS SOON AS YOU WAKE UP. Studies have shown, that even the best dreams can be forgotten within the first 5 minutes of you waking up after them. So, let this be a motivational warning to you to write your dreams down right away. 

Another positive aspect of writing down your dream immediately is that all the visual details in your dream are fresh in your mind and will translate to word form more easily. And of course, this will help you even more with the interpretation of your dream. And often times, as you write, you will even begin to remember more and more detail. And details are very important with dreams. Both seeing the dream inside your mind and reading about what you saw will each hit your perspective very differently!

And now you may be wondering, "HOW do I write down my dreams?" 

Well, you're in the right place! You can follow these important 8 Steps of Recording Your Dreams to help you to more efficiently write down the dreams that you have...

8 Steps of Writing Down a Dream:

1. Keep a Pen and Paper on Nightstand (or Note File on your phone if you prefer)

2. Write down the dream as soon as you Wake up from having it. (You don't want to forget your dream!)

3. FIRST - Write down your dream.

4. SECOND - Write down the date and time. You can more easily recover the date and time that you had the dream than you can the contents of your dream!

5. Make sure you include ALL of the details of your dream - Starting from beginning to end, write down the events of your dream, the things you saw, the way you felt, the way you perceived that others felt, things that you were 'aware of', the people in your dream, any sounds that you heard, and any smells (if they were present...not everyone has the sense of smell within their dreams), and write down any other details, even if they seem small or unimportant. 

TIP: It may be helpful to write the basic details of your dream, and THEN add the intricate details afterwards. Sometimes I do this if I am feeling a little groggy when I wake up.

6. Ask God for help with understanding the dream, and to reveal to you anything that you need to know.

7. Follow His lead in discovery.

8. Write down the interpretation as it is revealed to you. Some dreams may take more time to interpret than others. Be patient with God and yourself as you seek to figure out the meaning of your dream.

Writing down your dreams is a GOOD IDEA!

NOTE:

In the past, I have written my dreams down in a dream journal, but I have, in more recent years, begun to keep them in either a note app on my phone, or in a word doc. I do my best to keep these digital files backed up, because digital records can be easier to lose that paper at times. So, consider these things when you are choosing the medium on which you will write your dreams.