PRINCIPLES FOR INTERPRETING DREAMS

PRINCIPLES FOR

INTERPRETING DREAMS









Lets look at the book of Job 33:14-18 a statement made by Elihu. If you remember there were three friends who came and then the fourth was mentioned later in the book of Job. Towards the end of the book of Job God rebukes the first three friends but not the fourth, implying that the statements made by the fourth (who happened to be Elihu) were acceptable to God and were prophetic.



In Job 33 is a statement made by Elihu, which carries a lot of truth. Verse 14-18 For God speaks in one way, and in two, though man does not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, while they slumber on their beds, then He opens the ears of men, and terrifies them with warnings that He may turn man aside from his deed, and cut off pride from man. Dreams in general sense is part of the series on how to be led by the Spirit. We mentioned that dreams are also referred to as a vision of the night. We can see here that dreams and vision of the night are dual phrases referring to the same thing. A dream to the Hebrew mind is a vision of the night. It is a vision that you see in your sub-conscious state.



We have also mentioned how there are three types of dreams and visions. There is a direct or clear dream or vision that does not need any interpretation. It means what it is. For example we find that Joseph the husband of Mary who was carrying Jesus in the womb being directed by an angel in a dream. Angels do appear directly in people’s dream. An angel led him to go into Egypt and then to come back to Israel and settle down in Nazareth where the boy Jesus grew up. So there is a clear cut direct dream or vision.



Then we have the second category that we called the message type where you could have the whole series of dreams but there is only one main message. We have illustrated with Acts 16 Paul before his Macedonian journey he was in Troas waiting. After he was told by the Spirit not to go to Bithynia or Mysia he waited at Troas. Then he had a night vision. If you take the Hebrew meaning he possibly had a dream. To them it was the same; dreams and visions are similar and can be regarded as one. Although he saw the Macedonian man he took it as a message and not as a parable. When he went to Philippi, which was the capital of Macedonia, Paul did not look for a man although he saw a man in a vision. The first people he encountered were women. So we know that it was a kind of message dream or vision.



Then the third category is like parable, where each picture in a vision or dream has a symbolic meaning. Daniel had dreams and visions in the night. He saw animals in his dreams. Each animal represents a nation. So these are symbolic visions or dreams.



We have also mentioned how Joseph and Daniel got into interpretation of dreams and some of the requirements that were given. And we have given some rules and guidelines on how to interpret dreams in a general form. We have mentioned how that in the parable kind of vision or dream every symbol has to be scriptural. In other words if a snake in the bible represents something evil whatever sort of snake you saw in a dream it still symbolizes evil. Even if the snake is white in color it still is evil. The symbols have to be scriptural. That is what we call the underlining guidelines.



As I meditate over dreams and visions I realize that there is a whole part in the leading of the Spirit through dreams. Apparently from this scripture in Job 33 a dream plays a significant part in the life of every one of us. Even if you sit right here this morning and you said I didn’t have any dream, there is no such thing. Every one of us dreams. But we do not remember our dream. According to the biological analysis of a person’s sleep you go through different stages. There is a stage of sleep where your eyes do not move. According to their study today they recognized that the first stage of sleep is for your body. Your body is having a rest. So there is no dream. Your eyes do not move. But there is a stage of dream where they call the R.E.M. sleep, which stands for rapid eye movement. Why do the eyes move? For in a dream it is as if you are watching a movie. And the eyes move and respond as if you are watching a big screen movie accordingly. But it’s an internal movie. It’s something that only you see. Today scientists who study sleep think an R.E.M sleep has something to do with the mind. There is a necessity for the mind to analyze whatever that thing it was. The activities of the day rearrange information, process the information that has been received thus far throughout the day. They have tested people. And whenever a person goes to sleep and whenever the R.E.M sleep starts they would purposely wake that person up. In other words they only allow the person to sleep without R.E.M., which is a dream stage. They found that even though a person may have had some sleep but no R.E.M. sleep that his or her mental faculty is affected. A person’s ability to concentrate and focus becomes affected when he or she is deprived of dreaming.



As we analyze this thing from the bible concept R.E.M. sleep is a dream stage and it’s at that stage that the bible says in Job. 33 God places His instructions. God places things that would lead us and guide us. We have actually a large portion of the leading of the Spirit in our dream life. But just as in a conscious stage so it is in the sub-conscious stage. That is when we are in our conscious stage about 90 or 95 percent of the leading we receive in our life is through the human spirit. It’s the human spirit that instructs us and tells us things that are right or wrong; this is the inward witness and the inward voice. The other 5 percent or 10 percent is what we call the spectacular leading like visions, prophecies and even angelic visitations. But the main primary leading is our inward spirit or the human spirit. This is the inward witness and the inward voice that we hear.



As I analyze this area here I realize that the direction we receive from our dream life is 90 or 95 percent from our human spirit. Deep in the corridor of our spirit are the instructions that are given to us. Then there are some dreams that are from God. Dreams can come from three sources just as thoughts can come from three sources. It can come from God; it can come from demonic activity or it can come from our self. And our thoughts can also come from three realms. They can come from God; it can come from our self or it can come from the enemy. As we work with we realize that most of our thoughts are either from God or within us. Our spirit searches within us. In a dream state if we walk with God and the blood of Jesus covers us, there is no open door for the enemy to come in our dream life. That leaves two categories; from God or from our human spirit. About 5 percent or 10 percent of our dreams may be from God. Once in a while you have a dream that is a message direct from God.



What do we mean by dreams that are from God and from our human spirit? Why do we make a differentiation between the two of them? If you understand how to be led by the Spirit, you must learn to differentiate the voice of the human spirit from the voice of the Holy Spirit. We mentioned that when it is God that says something we say, “Thus says the Lord.” By if have our human spirit is instructing us you have what Paul says, “I perceived in my spirit.” It’s a world of a difference. When we say, “I perceived,” we are saying we have only one small part and it is changeable. And the instructions may need more verification and clarification. Whereas when we a have a “Thus says the Lord” there is nothing more you can change; there is nothing more you can add; there is nothing except to obey.



In a similar way in dreams there are certain ways that are clear-cut “Thus says the Lord.” There is nothing else you can do about it except pray to God that He will reveal to you fully what He is instructing you. There are certain dreams you notice that are authoritative. They carry a direct message from God like Pharaoh’s dream in the Old Testament. Here is a clear-cut dream for his whole nation. If he did not understand that dream and interpret it his whole nation may perish. Those are important dreams. Those are direct messages from God. The two dreams of Joseph that were recorded were direct messages from God. He may have other dreams too but only two were recorded because those instituted messages from God. But these types of dreams only occur in about 5 to 10 percent of our dreams. The vast majority of our dreams come from the realm of our human spirit or our human soul. They interlinked together. And they constitute direction in our life.



Our human spirit can lead us as much as the Holy Spirit. And we are to train our human spirit with the Word of God so that we could be sensitive to our human spirit and do things according to what God wants. Why does God do it that way? God doesn’t want us to be robots where we always say, “Thus says the Lord, turn right;” “Thus says the Lord, take your coffee now.” We are not robots. So God leads us by the human spirit. And when He does it through the human spirit He demands that we grow. And when we are led by human spirit and human spirit is trained in Him not only are we obedient to God we have become like God because our human spirit has taken the nature and maturity of God.



In about 90 percent of our dreams our human spirit is indirectly picking up God’s instructions to you. The other 5 to 10 percent of our dreams are God’s direct messages to us. Either way, that is a vast amount of dreams and we need to understand them. That is the reason for this series so that we could understand and interpret our dreams.



Ecclesiastes 5:3 For a dream comes with much business, and a fool’s voice with many words. According to his understanding a dream comes through much activity. We realize that king Solomon is the wisest men during his time. And he had some understanding here about dreams. He says a dream comes through much activity. He is indirectly saying that the activities of our life would be related to the dream that we have.



A symbolic dream from God is always in the context of the Bible. In other words symbols in a dream like a snake represents evil; sheep represents something good; goat represents something religious. There are fixed symbols in the bible that are unchangeable. But besides that there are other symbols that are changeable. That can represents something in a person’s life and another thing in another person’s life. That is why the interpretation of dreams is not as easy as you look at it from the outside.



The reason why we teach on this area is because I sensed that in the secular world there will be a gathering interest in this kind of occultist thing. And there are several worldly books on that. Reader Digest has a little mini book on dreams. The Buddhists and Taoists have a little book on that. And Carl Jung the psychologist based in Europe has something to say about dreams. Christians like Mark Wrinkler has a book on dreams in one of his courses, written not by him but by another author. I have read these books on dreams carefully and found that except for the Christian book, which has a higher accuracy, the others are completely inaccurate. The non-Christian books on dreams have a dictionary of dreams that explains the symbols. What they have is they say this symbol represents that. A house represents this. Its fixed and they say when you have a dream refer to that dictionary. It’s too rigid. It’s so easy to misinterpret a dream if you use those books. That is the weakness in these books since they have fixed the meanings of these symbols.



I wanted to see what some of their interpretation were. They interpret a snake as something good. So obviously they don’t have a ruler to measure what is good and evil. So for them everything look quite O.K. Now we have a rulebook called the bible that classifies major symbols. You cannot change them. They will remain as defined in the bible; for example a serpent represents evil etc. But outside of symbols found in the Bible, there are other areas that need interpretation. What does a house represent in the bible? Its quite neutral a house represents a dwelling place. It can be a dwelling place for good or for evil. Things like that where the bible has no direct specifics of good and evil. A house just represents a dwelling place. So because of that the interpretation of dreams is not as simple as that.



Then I read the book “Dreams and its Interpretation”. Now this author is a pastor. He shared several dreams that he had in his life. At a certain stage in his ministry he even attended courses on Carl Jung’s theories. Carl Jung has died but his teachings have many followers. He has come up with some conclusions but I have reservations in some areas. Almost all of the dreams he had are in the category of personal interpretation. In other word it only refers to himself. He completely excluded the 5 percent or the 10 percent of dreams that comes from God directly. Like in that book if he dreams something about his father or his mother it means something about his soul from his father or his soul quality from his mother. Or if he dreams about animals they represent different emotions. In a sense it has some truth but it is not absolute. For example if he dream of a squirrel, to him that squirrel would represent a particular emotion of his. Or if he dreams of a tiger then that represents his emotion of fearlessness. So all the animals represent different emotions in his soul. Basically about 99.9 percent of his interpretations have to do with his soul. There is some truth in it but not always. And he interprets death as having a different meaning also.



As I read that book up to certain point I could discern that demonic powers have entered into his life because he has opened himself to that kind of interpretation where everything is good. I could see that there were some representations that represent demonic powers trying to come into his life that he is not shutting off from. For example you dream of going into the jungle and in the jungle you meet some wild animals. And if you read that book and interpret solely by that book, it would mean the jungle represents the jungle of your emotion. And the wild animal represents a part of your nature that is wild. Then the tiger represents a part of you that is bold. And you are learning how to balance your emotions.



You could interpret differently for example wild things and tigers represent demonic power. And they could represent you are going to a certain stage where they are lurking in the dark. Perhaps you are entering into a stage in your life where it’s the unknown, the jungle means something unknown. Then hiding in the unknown are all these demonic powers in different forms. Tigers could represent things that try to put fear into your life.



So you see that the same dream if you have a different perspective can be interpreted two ways. You could interpret a hundred percent as from the soul. Or you interpret it as a hundred percent has to do with some spiritual message. You could see how interpretation is not as easy as it seems even though you understand the symbols.



That’s why we want to teach a little bit in detail on the interpretation on dreams. I realize that a lot of the leadings in our life that we tend to miss in our conscious life are repeated in our dreams. And if you would pay attention to some of the messages that are coming in our dreams you will not go astray out of God’s perfect will. There are warnings as mentioned. God places dreams in our lives to direct our lives to keep us from the path leading to the pit. I encourage you to write down your dreams even the most insignificant ones. You will be surprised that many of your dreams tell you about your job, your career, your business decision, your ministry and all the things that are missed.



As I pray in this area that’s why the Holy Spirit impressed me to teach on this series. He says my people are missing what I am telling them. They are missing what I am telling them in their dream life because they regard it the way the westernized educational system regarded it. Just for some background the world philosophy today and humanism is greatly affected by Aristotle. Before Aristotle was Plato. These two great scholars and philosophers have affected the educational system of the whole world. Plato taught that you could receive knowledge through three areas: the physical world, the intellect and through what he would call divine activity. To us we understand it to be spirit realm. But when Aristotle came he only accepted that knowledge could come only through the senses and through the intellect. And today the world system and education is based on the fact that knowledge can come through sense knowledge and the intellect. They ignored completely the spirit realm. And that is why the average educated person regards dreams as something wishy-washy that is nothing significant. They totally ignored the aspect of the spiritual, which is unknown as far as the intellectual man is concerned.



How do we interpret our dreams? What is the basis of such interpretation? We have the bible that tells us symbols. What about things that are more detailed? So there are certain rules that we want to look at.



No. 1 we look at some basic rules first. Dreams should be taken in the context of the Bible and in the dreamer’s personal life. It is easier to interpret your dreams in some ways but sometimes harder. Let me explain it before you can actually interpret somebody’s dream. I must understand what those symbols mean to him. There are certain quote unquote that we call international symbols. Snake represents evil but there are others that are not directly covered in the bible. So to interpret a person’s dream I will need to understand what the symbols mean to him. If to that person the squirrels have some significance, then besides the bible interpretation I will also need some details to interpret his dream and find out what squirrels mean to him. Perhaps when he was small he had a squirrel as a pet. It was something so precious to him that when that squirrel was taken away he cried very much. Then it has some different meaning besides the general meaning that represents unclean animal. It takes on an extra meaning for him in his dream.



Lets take something more common like cats. Let says A loves cats. He has a cat that he kept all his life when he was a young little boy. This cat means everything to him. So the cat represents to him something of love. It represents companionship and affection. So now when he dreams of cat I can have the general interpretation that a cat is an unclean animal. But that doesn’t help me in explaining some of the details of his dream. I would need details of what cat represents to him. I need to know a person’s life to help to interpret that.



Then for example a cat to another person B could represents witchcraft. Perhaps his only experience of cats has to do with witchcraft. Then when A dreams of a cat and B dreams of a cat, there are two different interpretations for the same cat. Cat to A means something nice, to B means something evil. So I interpret their dreams I have to pick up what that person’s understanding is. So you can see why it is sometimes easier to interpret somebody else’s dream that you know than whom you do not know. If you take that statement by itself then the other side logically means it is easier to interpret your own dreams because you know yourself. In a sense it is true but in another sense its not true. Our dreams sometimes reveal our blind spots that we cannot see. And because we cannot see that and the dreams try to tell us of our blind spots we find it difficult to interpret them.



With all these in mind we look at the book of Genesis chapter 40 the baker and the butler. A dream is No. 1 contextual. In verse 9 it says So the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, “In my dream there was a vine before me, and on the vine there were three branches; as soon as it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and the clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand; and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.



In order to interpret the butler’s dream we need to know what those symbols mean to the butler. So Joseph has wisdom that is why in the bible the great interpreters of dreams are those who are wise. Joseph has God’s wisdom. Daniel too has God’s wisdom. When you are wise you understand another person’s life besides your own. So Joseph must understand what those symbols mean. What does the vine means to the butler?



A vine can means different things to different people. If you take that word generally it means something good. The word vine in the bible also represents the church. Of course in the butler’s dream it has nothing to do with the church. To the butler the vine tree produces grapes. In the dreams he was taking that cup and taking the grapes and squeezing the grapes juice and giving it to Pharaoh. Remember this was something he used to do when he worked. All the time when he was serving Pharaoh that was what he was doing. It would have been if you are an accountant and in your dream you dream about yourself doing accounts. Do you know what that means? That dream is talking about your job. You don’t need to dream about vine to know about your job because that vine has nothing to do with you. So the symbols are contextual. Joseph understood that handling cups was what the butler normally does in his job, so the dream has to do with his job. And there was the number three, which is important. That’s why don’t forget details. He mentioned that there were three branches. So that three was significant for it tells three days.



And for the baker he had a different dream. It says here in verse 16 When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favorable, he said to Joseph, “I also had a dream; there were three cake baskets on my head, and in the uppermost basket there were all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating it out of the baskets on my head.” And Joseph answered, “This is its interpretation; the three baskets are three days; within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head from you and hang you on a tree; and the birds will eat the flesh from you.”



If you study it carefully it’s a very different interpretation from the normal dream. So we have to look at the context of the baker. The baker dreamt about bread but the butler dreamt about grapes. To the accountant he dreams about accounts. To the engineer he dreams about engineering projects. To the minister he dreams about preaching. You know what it means when you dream about preaching your ministry. So dream is contextual; we got to understand the context.



Besides that we just add another point that the context is limited by your work. Its very unlikely if your work is on a national basis for your dream to have an international basis. If your work has to do only with a local district, it is very unlikely that your dream has to do with international things. In other words its contextual to the size of your job or your ministry. For Pharaoh he was governing over a whole nation. So he dreams about things that have national perspective. It wan not just a personal soul dream. For Daniel who had an international perspective his dreams were international. In one dream he has four nations. He was functioning in an international perspective. He was the key leader and minister over two three nations. So his dreams took on an international perspective.



So to interpret a dream we also need to understand not only what the symbols mean to a person but the level that person is functioning in. If a person is called to be a soul winner but not directly called to the ministry, it is very unlikely that the dream would have significance in an international perspective. That is why we got a lot of misinterpretations. A soul winner who had a certain dream may misinterpret that he will have an international ministry that will impact the body of Christ. I heard people who were not called to the ministry and they interpret their dreams in terms of what their ministry will have internationally. It is very unlikely. For example a soul winner’s dream may looks like he will have an international ministry. He may interpret it as a worldwide ministry that is going to happen. When I heard it and not only judging the dream but also judging from what I am hearing from the Spirit I know that he is hearing the wrong thing. Or rather he has picked it up with a wrong interpretation with the right dream. You could have the right dream with the wrong interpretation and wrong application. So it is contextual to a person’s life.



Now to the baker here bread and carrying bread is something that he does all the time. How did Joseph refer it to death? It looks like he is just losing his job from the description of the three baskets and the birds eating the bread off the baskets. Since Joseph was in charge of the prison, he knew what happens when a death sentence is pronounced. There were many others before the baker who were sentenced to death. He must have seen them hanging on a tree and the birds pecking on the flesh. That was the concept of judgment and death in those days. So based on that he understood that birds pecking equals death, he interpreted that the baker would die. Today birds pecking may not equal death. But in those days when a prisoner is sentenced and condemned to death, there would be birds pecking the flesh of the corpse. Pharaoh didn’t mete out such a punishment just because it was the baker. It was something common to see criminals sentenced to death by hanging in Egypt. So with that understanding of what that symbol means in those days he understood that there was a picture of death.



The second difficulty that we need to understand is symbols in a dream can change even within one person’s sphere of meaning, let alone a different person. In the first point a same symbol to “A” and a symbol to ”B” means two different things. But the other difficulty is that even within one person the same symbol can change. In other words it was this symbol that represents something at a certain point of time and at another point of time the symbol represents something else. The same symbol changed with time.



Lets look at Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel chapter two the dream that Nebuchadnezzar forgot. Verse 31 and 32 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 breast and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze. Now verse 36-38 “This was the dream; now we will tell the king its interpretation. You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory, and into whose hand he has given, wherever they dwell, the sons of men, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the air, making you rule over them all – you are the head of gold.



So in the first dream that Nebuchadnezzar had the head of gold represents himself. Second dream that he had in chapter four verse 10 The vision of my head as I lay in bed were these; I saw and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth; and its height was great. The tree grew and became strong, and its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth. Its leaves were fair and its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it, and the birds of the air dwelt in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it. verse 15 but leave the stump. Verse 19 Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was dismayed for a moment and his thoughts alarmed him.



That means Daniel instantly understood what the dream is. The moment he heard it he was filled with shock because he knew what it meant. And it says in verse 22 It is you, O king, who have grown and become strong. In other words the tree represents Nebuchadnezzar. If you analyze it, Nebuchadnezzar had two dreams. In the first dream the head of gold represent himself. In the second dream the tree represent himself. The two different symbols referred to the same man.



It is possible that in different dreams at different times you have different symbols that represent the same thing. We want to recall Pharaoh’s dream of the seven thin cows and the seven fat cows. The seven sheaves of grain and the seven lean sheaves of grain. Two different symbols represent the same thing even in one dream. In two different dreams two symbols represent the same thing. In a single dream two different symbols represent the same thing. That’s why interpretation of dream is not as easy as you see it. But if you understand these points you can make it easy.



If you remember your dreams you know how dreams change and have different parts. You could be in a certain place in your dream and suddenly you were at a different place. Usually it means it is the same thing in different symbols. For example in Pharaoh’s dream about the seven fat cows, seven thin cows, Seven fat sheaves of grain and seven thin ones. The two different symbols were two different parts of a dream. It is the same thing referred to. The next time you have a dream that has three parts, scene one, scene two, scene three, all those scenes can represent one message given in different forms. Although you are there watching the dream the dream itself can represent you. It doesn’t necessarily mean that it represents somebody else. Even though Nebuchadnezzar was there and he was looking at the tree, he was right there in the dream himself. He was right there separate from the tree in his dream. The tree was the tree and he was himself. He was a separate person in the dream from the tree. But that tree was him. It was not even referring to the empire. He didn’t lose his empire. It was him who was judged. His empire continued to exist possibly because Daniel held it together. During those years when he was cast out as a beast who took control of his empire? If you look at it very carefully the empire didn’t collapse it was Nebuchadnezzar who collapsed.



Even in the other dream the one where he was the golden head, that represents both him and his empire, even though he was standing there and the statue was separate from him. So remember when you have a dream it does not mean that you have to be there to represent you. In your dream you could be there watching something that represents you. It could be a tree, or it could even be a person. In the dream it was another person but in the end it was you. Perhaps in a dream you see a little kid experiencing all kind of things. You cannot recognize the kid. You were wondering whether God is telling you about somebody else’s kid. No, most probably God is talking about you. That small little kid represents you. In the second point here symbols changed but the meanings are the same.



In the third category as we look and study the interpretation of dreams we are just introducing basic principles. Lets look at the book of Genesis chapter 37:3 Now Israel loved Joseph more that any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he made him a long robe with sleeves. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him more than all his brothers, and could not speak peaceable to him. Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they only hated him the more. He said to them, “Hear this dream which I have dreamed; behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf arose and stood upright; and behold, your sheaves gathered round it, and bowed down to my sheaf.



That made his brothers hated him more. Now although he was there and his brothers’ sheaves were there, his sheaf in his dream represented him. But the other thing here is his sheaf represented his job and his call. In those days they were agricultural based. It was a common thing for them to go out and harvest. So something from their work was brought into Joseph’s dream but an additional thing happened. When they put the sheaves together all the other sheaves bowed down to Joseph. It is saying that Joseph’s job or vocation or call will be higher than his brothers. See it is referring to his call. Not just to his present position it was a prediction that was to come.



His second dream is recorded in verse 9. Then he dreamed another dream, and told it to his brothers, and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream; and behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” But when he told it to his father and 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?”



Apparently Jacob understood dream. He knew that the sun was him and the moon was the mother, eleven stars were the children. So he rebuked Joseph. So in that dream an inanimate object, sun represent papa, moon is mama. Now it is not always that way. Isn’t it strange how symbols are that way? We must realize that the language of the spirit world is symbolic. It’s just like I want to convey with my intellect a description to you I have to use phrases that you understand. We cannot use language which none of us understand to convey something. So for example there are a lot of debate over Charismatic terms like infilling of the Spirit, baptism in the Spirit. People quarrel because of that definition. To them the different terms could mean the same thing. But churches have fought and split because of definition. So when one person stands up and say something the other person understood it to mean something else. Misunderstanding, hurt, grievances has come because somebody said something that they don’t mean it. They mean it something in their context and somebody understood it to something else because of their background and they quarrel. That happens in communication.



Now as our human spirit wants to communicate to us it will take from within our experience. It will take symbols that mean something to us in order to convey a message to us in a picture form. So the spirit wants to warn you about danger. It will draw from your life things that represent danger to you. But it is difficult for our intellect to interpret because we may not understand that those symbols represent that. Because the same symbols that the spirit draw from our experience may represent something in the natural world. And when we wake up we tend to move into the natural world and look at that from that context rather than its actual meaning.



So the third in regard to dream and its interpretation is chronological context or time frame. A dream has a time frame. It may no more be applicable after some time. Time frame in what sense for example, we want to understand what a person is going through at the time that they have the dream. To interpret dreams you must understand not only what the symbols mean to that person, you must also try to pick up what that person is going through. Because what they are going through will have an effect on that dream. If you have been going through a time of difficulty, like perhaps you have just lost your job. You have been applying for job after job. The dreams you have will have to do with the chronology context of what you are going through. If I did not pick up that you have just lost your job I may interpret the dream differently. But if I have the chronological context of what you are going through I could interpret the dream better. Those dreams may have a message about your job. It may even tell you when you will get that job. Dreams can tell the time.



Joseph told the baker in three days you will be hanging on a tree. So a dream has its chronological context in the sense of what the person is going through at that time. Whether a person is fearful, happy, sad, anxious, all these things must be taken into account before you can interpret a dream. In this third point let me share a little bit further.



Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 5:3 that a dream comes through much activity. The word activity not only refers to physical activity. Behind it also it conveys a meaning of your soul state, whether you were fearful or anxious and all these. So it is important to see when that person has a dream chronologically what context are they going through? We apply that knowledge when we interpret our dreams. That means like David it is important to search our hearts before we sleep. If you sleep in a state of anxiety and fear that has not been removed or state of unforgiveness or state of anger let me tell you those will come out in the dream and it will color your dreams. And that prevents an accurate reception from God because our dreams are colored by our emotions. It is important to have emotions of love, joy and peace in the presence of God before we sleep in order to receive accurate messages from our dreams. Otherwise all the dreams do is just to reveal our soul’s condition and what we need to do to deal with it.



I know people who sleep in a state of anger and judgmental things and in their dreams their anger and judgmental attitudes come up. The dreams confirm their suspicion. They suspect this and they suspect that and it comes out in the dream. It is a projection. What you believe what you feel is projected into the dream. It will be the same like negative confession. People say this is going to happen. Later it happened then they say, “There I told you - prophecy fulfilled.” It is not prophecy; they just got what they said in the negative realm. So it is a kind of projection of their negativities, which materialized because they spoke out their negativities and they dreamed out their negativities.



It is quite similar to the conscious state. For example it is very hard to hear from God when you are anxious, when you are fearful, when something is troubling your mind. It hinders the accuracy of hearing the voice of God and the voice of your human spirit. The best place to hear from God is a place of rest, love, peace and joy in the kingdom of God. If you are filled with anxiety your thoughts are troubled. And it tends to magnetize and pull towards the wrong direction so your receiving is colored. That is why it is sometimes difficult to tell things about yourself. If you are praying about a job and you really want it very much. In the natural state when you are awake you keep hearing, “This is God, this is God.” Because of your strong desires 95 percent of your dreams are affected by the magnetic pull of your emotions. Your activity colors your dream that’s what Solomon is saying in Ecclesiastes 5:3. In order for accurate interpretation you need what this third point says: know the chronological context or emotion or spiritual context of the person.



Interpreting two dreams from the audience. Dream No. 1 She just dream she didn’t get the wake up call in the hotel and she was late for church by two hours. That dreams doesn’t tells me much. It only tells me the state in which she slept in. She was very concerned that she doesn’t want to be late. So that came out in a dream. You see the third point is affecting her dream life. It tells me several areas about her life. Like to her it is important to get ready for the church. A normal person may not have that kind of anxiety.



Dream No. 2 She has a dream that she is swimming in the water and then she has it again she was walking on the water. Now before we interpret the dream remember the other context that we mentioned. You have to understand what these symbols mean to her. Walking on water and walking through water are found in the bible. Walking on water or going through water symbolize spiritual movement. We all remember Moses crossing the Red Sea. That was like darkness and light moving from Egyptian land into the Promised Land. We also remember Joshua and the Israelites. They crossed the Jordan and it was like going from one aspect into something new. So this is the scriptural context.



Then we have other areas, which are important to interpret the dream. Because she is in the ministry, then the chronological context is important. She doesn’t know how to swim in the natural. That plays an important role in interpreting the dream. God specially use something that she cannot do in the natural and the Spirit use something that she cannot do in the natural to show her something that she is doing in a dream. General interpretation would mean that it is talking about some aspect of ministry that she is going to move in to. Something that is different for example crossing the Jordan to the land of Canaan. Something that is vitally important. Then the interpretation is affected by our own knowledge of what she is going through in her ministry. I understand that at certain points in her dreams it represents a crossover point from one phase of ministry to another phase. So that helps me to interpret her dream too.



Because she does not swim in the natural and yet she has those dreams, it would mean that there is something that she had never done before in the Spirit. Something that she has never done before that is new in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit brought up things that she could never do. That points to things in the Spirit that she has no experience before that God is preparing her for.



Then twice the dream occurs. Once when she was within the water the other when she was above the water. It depends now on when she had that dream. She had it twice means that she would have two different experience of what God will do in that phase of ministry. In the first phase she will be handling those things that she had never done before. As she moves into it she will get fully involved with it. The second dream means that she is going to dedicate whatever she has done there. She will move into some sort of ministry and going to establish it. See when she walks on water she is no more in it. She is above it.