7. The Danger Of Individualism
If you read and understand this book you’ll know more than 99.999% of all Christians and all mankind about God’s Bible dreams but please remember the main purpose is not to make you wiser and smarter so you can live a more self-centred life.
The main purpose for this book is to help Christians become very familiar with all of God’s recorded Bible dreams and to equip us to better hear God’s voice in our own dreams so we can better do God’s will.
Psalm 105:1 says, O give thanks to the Lord, call on his name, make known his deeds among the peoples. It doesn’t say make known my deeds or your deeds amongst the peoples. The focus is always on God.
God’s dreams communicate God’s thoughts and not man’s thoughts. No Bible dream ever originated from the mind of the dreamer. No Bible dream ever came from man’s consciousness, man’s unconsciousness or Carl Jung’s idea of the collective consciousness.
All God’s Dreams come from a sovereign God who communicates directly to the dreamer in order to advance His Own kingdom purpose.
God’s dreams are sent to fulfil God’s specific sovereign plans and purpose and not to fulfil the dreamer’s plans and purposes. The main focus for the dreamer should be on doing God’s will and not on pursuing self interest or self-promotion.
In Scripture if the dreamer obeyed their dream they were blessed, if they disobeyed they were cursed. All Bible dreams came supernaturally from outside the dreamer.
One of the great strengths of the Pentecostal and Charismatic heritage of the last hundred years has been Christians coming to know and experience God in a personal way.
Millions of believers have been baptised in the Holy Spirit and have personally experienced Jesus through the gifts of the Holy Spirit and a renewed love of the Bible.
Unfortunately this strength of individual relationship and personal experience can also become a me-centred weakness. One of the nastiest demonic spirits invading the Western world nowadays is a spirit of individualism.
Today it’s becoming increasingly okay to be self-centred. It certainly sells more products. After all you’re worth it. This spirit of individualism has resulted in a ‘me first’ attitude resulting in millions of broken marriages and a billion worldwide abortions.
This selfish spirit also promotes independence and narcissism in people who so easily become self focused and isolated from others. This is particularly evident in economically developed nations where affluence tends towards self-reliance. Prosperous people can feel they don’t need others!
Social media also leads to self-centredness as we strive to project our special presence to the world. Societies and cultures promoting celebrity, appearance, and narcissistic role models also fuel this increase in self-obsession.
Individualism has even penetrated some Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches moving them from being a caring community into individuals who make their own personal commitment without any sense of responsibility to the wider body of Christ.
Part of the problem is because we have been endlessly encouraged to pursue our own personal spiritual gifts and ministries. Then too often we begin to consider these heavenly endowments as personal possessions rather than God’s tools to serve and equip the body of Christ to fulfil the Great Commission.
This individualisation of spiritual gifts can also be wrongly coupled with the erroneous teaching God wants us all to be happy, healthy, wealthy and wise. These desires are really the false aspirations of our western acquisitive materialistic society rather that God’s plans and purpose for the body of Christ. Jesus said,
If anyone comes to me and does not hate
father and mother, wife and children,
brothers and sisters—yes, even their own
life—such a person cannot be my
disciple. And whoever does not carry
their cross and follow me cannot be my
disciple. [1]
The Holy Spirit and His powerful gifts including dreams were not given for our personal use or for self-promotion. They were provided by Jesus to help us equip His Church to fulfil the Great Commission,
Go therefore and make disciples of all the
nations, baptising them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all
things that I have commanded you; and
lo, I am with you always, even to the end
of the age. Amen. [2]
God’s purpose is always to equip the body of Christ to do God’s will and not just to bless special individuals. Paul said,
Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will
grow to become in every respect the
mature body of him who is the head, that
is, Christ. From him the whole body,
joined and held together by every
supporting ligament, grows and builds
itself up in love, as each part does its
work.[3]
I recently read a book blurb about how to get more of God’s power. It promised if you read this book your problems would transform into opportunities for success and you’d be helped to reach your dreams and goals with confidence, personal potential, wealth and communication.
And that’s not all. The impossible would become possible, sorrow would become joy, defeat would become peace and doubt would become faith in God. Not a bad deal for $19.99.
Deliberately or not this blurb was appealing to the spirit of self-centredness in people. God’s spiritual power was being peddled as something for our own personal blessing and problem solving.
There is no mention of being part of a corporate movement empowered by the Holy Spirit to go into the highways and byways and make disciples of all nations.
Unfortunately this ‘me first’ focus is also evident in the area of dreams, dream books and dream teaching. Too often the focus is on what’s in it for the dreamer and not what’s in it for God.
Blurbs selling dream books also make self-centred promises about unlocking the dreamer’s destiny, the dreamer’s ministry, the dreamer’s success, the dreamer’s direction and the dreamer’s purpose.
This is all very dangerous and can lead to great disappointment and delusion. We need to remember God’s true dreams are sent by God to fulfil God’s specific sovereign plans and purpose.
The main focus is always 100% on doing God’s will and not self-promotion for the dreamer.
It’s never a case of, What’s in it for me?
It’s always a case of, What’s in it for God? What does God want me to do? How does God want me to respond?
Jesus said similar,
Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing
by himself; he can do only what he sees
his Father doing, because whatever the
Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all
he does. [4]
Jesus didn’t come to earth to do His own thing, have His own ministry and take a Selfie. He only did what He saw the Father doing and what the Father showed him.
We too can do the same thing by being obedient to God’s voice through dreams.
Like Jesus our focus must always be on God’s will, plans and purpose.
The purpose of all spiritual gifts including dreams and visions is always on doing God’s will, serving the Body of Christ and reaching the lost with the Gospel.
Recently I was talking to a longtime Pentecostal believer who has suffered much for his beliefs over the many years. He said he was dismayed at the selfishness and false promises of many Christian Holy Spirit books today. He also applied this to Christian dream books of which he’d read quite a few.
I told him I totally understood his position but I also said, I thank God for the many new Christian books on dreams and dreaming being written today.
I said I praised God for the obedience and sacrifice of those various authors and I reminded him of the porridge in Goldilocks And The Three Bears. Some of the porridge was too hot; some too cold and some just right.
Similarly some of the new Christian dream books are too shallow, some too deep, some too difficult, some too easy, some too boring, some too exciting, some too complicated, some too commercial, some too human, some too spiritual and of course some are just right.
My advice is, Eat what you can and spit out the bones and thank God dreams and dreaming are once again being taken seriously within the Body of Christ. I’m a firm believer in Paul’s advice to Timothy,
Do your best to present yourself to God as
one approved, a worker who does not
need to be ashamed and who correctly
handles the word of truth. [5]
1 Luke 14:25-27
2 Matthew 28:19-20
3 Ephesians 4:15-16
4 John 5:19-20
5 2 Timothy 2:15
