I believe that many of you would react to an encounter like that by bowing down in humility and bawling your eyes out {if not just indulge me for a moment} and then when the time was right you would go forward and do what the angel commanded you to. Whatever challenges came your way, you could refer to that word spoken to you by the angel and be encouraged to do your part and trust in God to fulfill his part. Others may call you crazy, they may ridicule you and try to discourage you {like they did to Noah} but as long as you had the word of the Lord none of that would matter.
Now, imagine that instead of the angel appearing to you in the flesh he appeared to you in a dream. Do you think your reaction would be different? I imagine a small percentage of you would still go forward in faith, encouraged by the word but I imagine a greater percentage of you would say, "What in the world did I eat last night?" For the most part, we put a higher value on tangible experiences with the Lord than we do on dreams in which he speaks to us. As believers, we cannot discount that our God is spirit and he seeks out those who worship him in spirit so that we can experience him by the spirit.
In the word of God we find that many times he will deliver a message to his servants through dreams. Some of these dreams are symbolic in nature while others are direct and for encouragement, instruction or warning. Hands down the most famous dreamer in the bible is Joseph, beloved son of Jacob (Israel) but recently I have been impacted by the faith and courage of another, "less famous" dreamer; Joseph, son of Jacob (son of Matthan) adopted father of Jesus, our savoir.
Many times we look at the few verses about Joseph, husband of Mary, and think of him as a good man, an obedient servant but we rarely think of his as a dreamer of dreams. However, when the angel of the Lord appeared to him to tell him to take Mary as his wife it was "in a dream." When he was warned that Herod was searching for the child Jesus, to kill him and that they should escape to Egypt it was "in a dream." When he was told to take the child and his mother to Israel it was "in a dream." When he was warned that Archelaus was reigning in place of his father Herod it was "in a dream." Over and over God spoke to Joseph through dreams and over and over Joseph was obedient to listen to the voice of the Lord.
For those of us who God speaks to by dreams in the night, we must be obedient to follow the instruction or heed the warning of those dreams no matter what it looks like to others. Because we dreamers are a special part of the body of Christ. We are among those who are blessed because we have not seen with our natural eyes the fulfillment of our dreams yet we believe that it will come to pass as He has said it. Dreamers have the ability to recognize that it is God is speaking to us {not last nights dinner} and act on what it is He has said. And it is our faith acted out through obedience that gives birth to the things of the spirit.
Joseph of the Old Testament made a way for his brothers to be saved from the famine that would come by trusting in and being obedient to the God of his dreams. Joseph of the New Testament made a way for all mankind to find their savoir by trusting in and being obedient to the God of his dreams. Now, ask yourself this question Dreamer. Do I trust in my God enough to be obedient to what he speaking to me through my dreams? Even if it looks crazy? Even if it doesn't make sense? Even if my brothers hate me and rulers chase me down?
If you really are a dreamer then I think your answer is an easy, Yes! Because within each dreamer God has deposited a supernatural measure of faith and confidence that is activated by those dream encounters in order to produce a supernatural blessing for the body of Christ. So that just like the Joseph's of the bible we can make a way for others to be saved.
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| Complete and Lacking Nothing - For the Dreamer |
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