Dreams2

So I was doing some research on animals and I came across a verse which seems to indicate dreams occurring post Pentecost. Check it out and see what you think. You will first notice the VISION of Saul, and what I didn't know before was that he had other people with him. Anyone who ever tries to explain away this miracle owes it up to his long trek through the desert he could have been hallucinating, but the men who were with him heard it too; seeActs9:7 Then, in the same book you have a vision seen by Ananias in Acts 9:10. So these are visions, and not specified as dreams. But the signs of the last days specify dream and visions in the same sentence. Even if you don't feel convinced by my scanty evidence, check out Acts 10:10-etc. Where Peter falls into a trance after 6 hours of prayer, and has a vision from God. Aside from these miraculous, obvious accounts of message from God, the early accounts of the old testament show how common place dream interpretation was. When you look at how Joseph was an interpreter for the king, who was not a believer, you see how it was an accepted part of culture and a gifting that has slipped into the sketchy pile. We are now people of fact, so if we don't see the explanation laid out in front of us first hand, we are accustomed to questioning it. How many people do you know who have claimed to have seen a ghost? I know a few, and I bet if you haven't see one for yourself, then you aren't too sure what you think about them. Well what about when the dead were seen walking the streets after the Crucifixion? Stay tuned for a writing on the afterlife, but for now I'm talking about dreams. I feel like I had a few unfinished thoughts in there, but if you call me on it I'll probably be able to get back at you. Here's the part I am going to leave separate, because sometimes I feel like I either don't write all that I'm thinking, or some people get hung up on one thing I have said and are then unable to see the rest. I'm not saying that every dream has a meaning, or a message, or that it's from God or any other spiritual influence, but I do believe it is possible for someone to have a meaningful dream. The safest approach to dream interpretation is to pray about them, and don't work your mind too much to make something out of nothing. The other thing, for me at least, is that any dream that appears to have a message in it, is not necessarily a message from God but rather a message from myself. Let me re-word that. If I have a dream that makes me curious, it is usually because something in my life is disturbing or coming out in my sleep. For example, if I am in University and I've been procrastinating, puting off my term paper, I may have a dream where I am being chanced and running from something that I can't get away from. I might try to put it out of my mind, but it's sitting there, and as my brain is processing the thoughts of the day, and incorporating long term knowledge, I end up with an active interpretation of this term paper. I do write a lot of my dreams down, and I do try to pray about them, but I usually don't put a lot of effort into them and then they are forgotten. So lets say for arguments sake that some of us have meaningful dreams and others don't. Some people might say it's not worth the effort, or it's a crap shoot and that you are only getting yourself into trouble. Well, I feel like this is the approach many Christians have taken to a lot of the Spiritual gifts. If there's a chance that our dreams hold information for us, then I believe it is our responsibility to figure that information out. I can't think of a Biblical example of what I am trying to describe, so I'll go with one from a sermon; not such a reliable resource. I heard I sermon once about how someone had prayed for food, I think it was milk. So as one of their friends is praying they get the idea to give person number one some milk, but they didn't deliver it because they felt awkward. Anyways, so I'm missing a few details, but the long and the short of it is, the milk was delivered late, or not at all in a time of need. The message here is that we have responsibilities as Christians to be obedient, and if we are not then Gods work is not done. God heard the prayer, he had a plan for how the prayer was going to be answered, but the part He entrusted to humanity is where it went wrong. Some of you are thinking, "Oh my, what rabbit hole has he fallen down now, with this new age thinking." Well, I'm not saying I should be raising the dead, speaking in tongues, and prophesying on Stamps Lane, but I should be open to the possibility and pray for God to lead me into an understanding of what my gifts are, because we all have at least one, but some of us will have them all. Check my earlier post about Bible lesson for a look at the spiritual gifts. I really went off there at the end, but that's because I had a break in between to cook and eat some Shepard's Pie, which I found out is supposed to make Minced lamb in it, and that using Beef makes it cottage pie. I thought it was that way, except i didn't know there was a different name on the dish for using Beef, which I always grew up with. I'm not out in left field, I'm just trying to get down to business and see what The Word has to say about these issues. Wait until you see what I have to say about animals.