9. Four Kinds of Bibles Dreams
There are four kinds of dreams mentioned in Scripture.
• Firstly, there are True Dreams that are direct messages from God. These comprise 96% of all the recorded dreams in the Bible.
• Secondly, there are Satanic Dreams. There are only three mentions and two examples of such dreams.
• Thirdly there are False Dreams which are made-up delusions from the evil hearts and minds of men. We have no actual example of one of these dreams though God warns us about them.
• Fourthly there are Natural Dreams that arise from the dreamer’s personal self. We have scriptures speaking about these dreams but no actual recorded examples.
God’s True Dreams
This book focuses on and is full of the important ways God uses His true dreams to advance His plans and purpose. To this end we examine fifty three dreams and a few trances, visions and divine encounters.
Satanic Dreams
Concerning dreams from Satan we will examine how Eliphaz and Job were assailed by demonic dreams and nightmares. Although we know nothing about the actual content of Job’s dreams we do know the spirit in Eliphaz’s dream used half truths just like Satan
did with Jesus, in Jesus’ Tempted By Satan Dream. Unlike Jesus Eliphaz wasn’t able to overcome the spirit by quoting God’s word.
False Dreams
God through Jeremiah said these dreams are from deceitful prophets who have not stood in His presence and do not speak for Him. God calls them, lying prophets, who prophesy the delusions of their own minds?1
He tells His people not to listen to the made up dreams of these false prophets and mediums who try to fool God’s people by prophesying lies in God’s name.2 The purpose of these false dreamers is to lead God’s people into sin and away from God’s plans and purpose.3 Moses also warns about this,
If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, “Let us follow other gods” (gods you have not known) “and let us worship them,” you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. It is the Lord your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him. That prophet or dreamer must be put to death for inciting rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery.
That prophet or dreamer tried to turn you from the way the Lord your God commanded you to follow. You must purge the evil from among you.4
Joseph Smith who generated Mormonism and Muhammad who generated Islam all had dreams that led people away from a proper understanding and worship of Jesus as God.
Jeremiah also says God wants His true prophets to recount their dreams faithfully because their powerful dreams from Him will be like fire and a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces. The false prophets on the other hand steal words from one another and imagine fake dreams. Concerning these dreamers, God says,
Indeed, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,” declares the Lord. “They tell them and lead my people astray with their reckless lies, yet I did not send or appoint them. They do not benefit these people in the least,” declares the Lord.5
In the New Testament, Jude also warns against false dreamers who defile their bodies, reject authority, and slander glorious beings.6 Their evil dreams are not from God but from their own imaginations and sinful hearts.
Natural Dreams
God’s purposes for sleep and dreams not only concern spiritual revelation. The vast majority of our dreams are from our natural selves. We have scriptures speaking about these dreams but no actual recorded examples. Nowadays we tend to identify these dreams with labels like Processing Dreams or Soul Dreams.
Soul Dreams seem to be processing dreams that have some sense of meaning to
them. These dreams can often be interpreted. They tend to deal with suppressed emotions, attitudes, beliefs and issues we need to bring to the surface and bring to the Lord. They may refer to our past, present or even our concerns for the future.
Soul dreams often provide us with new insights into our inner world and occasionally they may even offer solutions for difficult personal problems. Soul dreams usually flag up issues that are best shared with pastors or other wise believers who can help us process these dreams and achieve a significant spiritual breakthrough in some relevant area.
As mentioned in chapter 17, God’s General Purposes For Sleep and Dreams, these Processing Dreams are vital for good mental and emotional health. These God given REM dreams nightly recalibrate and fine-tune the emotional circuits of our brains. Proper sleep and dreaming resets and benefits our mental and physical health.
These dreams also show God’s loving care because sleeping and dreaming are just as important for our lives as eating, drinking and breathing. The quality of our sleeping and dreaming is as vital to our well-being as the quality of our food, drink and air. The better the quality the better the life.
Dreaming is now being called ‘overnight therapy’ by some neuroscientists. Recent research discovered a major benefit of dreaming is in processing our daily emotional experiences so we can make sense of conflicting issues and move on with our lives.
Because we are daily faced with difficult issues, anxiety dreams are very common. They are usually triggered by internal stressors like angry emotions and impulses or external stressors like past trauma, a bad day at work, or an anxious response to whatever current crisis the media is throwing at us. These dreams can be about past events, repressed desires, and unfulfilled hopes. Wish fulfilment dreams about possible marriage partners fall into this category.
Isaiah likens such fleeting dreams to a hungry person who dreams of eating but wakens up still hungry and a thirsty person who dreams of drinking but wakens up faint and thirsty.7
Perhaps Solomon sums it up best when he says, Too much activity gives you restless dreams.8
1 Jeremiah 23:26
2 Jeremiah 29:8
3 Jeremiah 23:32
4 Deuteronomy 13:1-3
5 Jeremiah 23:25-32
6 Jude 1:8
7 Isaiah 29:7-8
8 Ecclesiastes 5:3
