4 Dreams God Used to Powerfully Impact People

God communicated directly with Abraham, and Isaac heard the Angel of the Lord stop his father from sacrificing him on the altar at Moriah. Jacob, however, seemed to struggle with his relationship with God, coming into conflict with his brother and deceiving his father. The first time the Bible records that God directly spoke to Jacob was after he fled from Esau and toward his mother’s family in Haran.

“And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, ‘I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.’ Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it’”(Genesis 28:11-16).

Because Jacob had not actively sought God before this moment in time, God reached directly into his mind, to get through his hard heart. The Lord reiterated the promises made to Abraham, and Jacob finally began to understand the power of God. He would still wrestle with the Lord, including quite literally many years later, but this dream was a step toward the birth of the nation of Israel, and Jacob’s submission to something higher than himself.

Photo credit: ©Getty Images/marian

When God speaks to someone, their heart is revealed. As a grown man, Joseph was able to look back at the trials and tribulations of his life and see God’s plan, but when he received two dreams from the Lord as a teenager, he took pride in it. While he loved the Lord, he did let it puff him up a little, and instead of being wise about who he shared his dreams with, he told all his brothers and his parents. Those dreams gave him insight into the future, that he would have power that would lead to his family bowing down to him.

“Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. He said to them, ‘Hear this dream that I have dreamed: Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.’  His brothers said to him, ‘Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?’ So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, ‘Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.’  But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, ‘What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?’ And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind” (Genesis 37:5-11).

God gave Joseph insight into his future, but it would not come to pass for decades. The man he grew into was more mature than the teenager who received the dreams. His brothers did not bow to him because he was special and his father’s favorite son, but because God equipped him to save thousands of people from starvation. Ultimately, Joseph gave the Lord the credit and the glory for his achievements.

Photo credit: ©Getty Images/mycola

After years of sinning, God allowed the Empire of Babylon to conquer Israel, and many of the brightest youth were carried back to the capital of their conquerors. One of those youths was Daniel, to whom God would share great visions of the future and the End of Days. The King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, also received dreams from God – though he didn’t know or worship the true God at that time. It panicked him, but God had placed Daniel in that court for such a time.

“Daniel answered the king…but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream and the visions of your head as you lay in bed are these…You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze,  its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. This was the dream” (Daniel 2:26-36a).

Daniel went on to interpret this dream, and others for the king, who allowed the dream to puff up his ego until God humbled him, not realizing that God was trying to communicate a greater truth. Nebuchadnezzar had a great empire, but there is a greater kingdom that will last forever.

Photo credit: ©Getty Images/volschenkh

Joseph and Mary – the earthly parents of the Lord Jesus – both did their best to walk with God and honor Him with their lives. They submitted themselves to His will. Part of God’s eternal plan was for Jesus to pay for the sins of the world, and to allow the baby Jesus to grow up, God warned Joseph in a dream that King Herod was searching for Him.

“Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.’  And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt  and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I called my son’” (Matthew 2:13-15).

Dreams allow the Lord to contact people, to tug at their hearts, to give them warning or insight. Today, many in the world are having encounters with the Lord Jesus in dreams, and putting their faith in Him. For those who have the Bible, they may not have direct dreams like the people recorded in the Word, but God can communicate however He wants. The Holy Spirit is there to whisper to the hearts of believers, and the Lord loves His children, even if He doesn’t send them a dream as seen in these accounts.

Sources

Gamblin, Mark. Bible Dreams. Create Space Independent Publishing Platform, 2018.

Husser, Jean-Marie. Dreams and Dream Narratives in the Biblical World. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999.

Walvoord, John F. and Roy B. Zuck. The Bible Knowledge Commentary An Exposition of the Scriptures by Dallas Seminary Old Testament and New Testament. United States of America: Victor Books, 1987.

Wilmington, H.L. Wilmington’s Guide to the Bible. Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, 1981.

Photo credit: Unsplash/Simon Matzinger