There is more that I don’t understand about the dreams a person has during sleep than there is that I do understand. I know that in the Bible dreams were often messages from God about the future of the one dreaming or those around them. Think of some of the amazing dreams mentioned in the Bible. Joseph had dreams that got him into trouble with his brothers. He dreamed of bundles of wheat in the field belonging to each of the sons, but all their bundles bowed down to his. Later he dreamed of the stars in the sky as representing him and his brothers and his dad. They all bowed down to his star. It probably wasn’t wise for him to tell what he had dreamed but it was a message from God about his future as a leader in Egypt. Consider Jacob’s dream of a ladder to heaven with angels ascending and descending on it. In John 1, Jesus used the same language to describe Himself as the ladder to heaven on which angels ascend and descend. When Paul and his company were trying to decide where God wanted them to go to preach the gospel, he had a dream of a man from Macedonia saying “come over into Macedonia and help us”. When Paul told the dream he and his company decided that it was a message from God about where they should go and preach, so they set the direction of travel for Macedonia.

What about the dreams we have today? Are there messages from God in our dreams? Or are our dreams just about things we had on our minds before we fell asleep? I know that many feel that there are messages for us in our dreams, not always from God, but messages none the less. It does seem to me that the mood I’m in before going to sleep affects what kind of dreams I have. If I’m sick or generally feeling rough it’s pretty common to dream about death and eternity with God. When I’m feeling great and everything seems to be going in the right direction the dreams seem to be happy and exciting as well.

Do you have recurring dreams? In talking with people about their dreams I’ve heard many say that they have the same dream over and over again. Often they become completely sold on the idea there must be a message in such a dream or why else would it come to us each night? I’ve talked with many men who have returned from war and they often talk about their dreams about the war, the death, the destruction and about friends that died in the war.

I often have visitors in my dreams. It is usually some family member that has been dead for many years. The visits are never about huge concerns or problems and certainly not a telling of what is going to happen in the future. Most of the time it is just a visit and in the dream we talk about many of the ordinary things in daily life. The most common visitor I have in my dreams is my brother, Roy, who died almost 15 years ago. In these dreams we’ve talked about everything from yard work, to what’s happening with our children, to how we are feeling physically at the time. If there is any message in them it is usually him saying, “Don’t worry about it” somewhere in the conversation.

Several years ago I heard an elderly preacher say that our dreams were movies from God to bless us even during our sleep. He said instead of trying to figure out what a dream meant we ought to simply thank God for sending us a dream to keep us occupied so we could stay asleep. Watch a baby as it sleeps for a while. Often you will see them smile while they are sleeping. Probably God has given them a good movie to keep them asleep for a while longer and to entertain them in the sleep. I hope you have sweet dreams.

Leon Barnes