Don’t think you dream, or don’t remember those images flowing across your mind every night? No Matter. It has been proven beyond doubt that everyone dreams—often many times per night.
Experts tell us we dream five to seven times during an ordinary night’s sleep! That adds up to one or two hours of dreams every night—five years of dreaming in a typical lifetime. That’s a lot of time spent in this world of dreams.
Oh, the adventures we have experienced in the wonderful world of dreaming! Flying high, traveling afar, climbing mountains, fighting invaders. Maybe we flee monsters, create sublime music, invent some marvel; perhaps marry royalty or birth a brilliant child.
We could have a mundane dream, like taking a test or losing something—teeth, a purse, a cell phone. Yet we might dream something other worldly, like conversing with angels or even with God Himself (like Solomon did – 1 Kings 3:5-15).
The golden fish
Author, speaker, radio host, Eric Metaxas dreamed he was ice-fishing. When a large pickerel poked its snout out of a hole in the ice, he took it by the gills and held it up. In the dazzlingly bright sunlight shining off the white snow and ice, the bronze-colored fish appeared positively golden.
Metaxas realized that, “it didn’t merely look golden; it actually was golden. It was a living golden fish, as though I were in a fairy tale. Right in the dream, I suddenly knew that this golden fish was Ichthys—Jesus Christ Son of God Our Savior. Right then, I realized He was real … at long last my search was over. I was flooded with joy.” (Christianity Today, 5/30/2013)
Why do we dream?
We’re hard-wired to dream every night. Why? Who gave us the capacity to receive colorful, dramatic sagas while we sleep? Just ask the Early Church Fathers what they believed.
- Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, believed dreams give us revelation of the spiritual world, and they demonstrate that we can be very close to God.
- Origen, a great 3rd century Christian thinker, viewed dreams, visions, and divine inspiration as an essential part of the way God reveals things to us.
- Bishop Cyprian, a founder of the Latin Church, emphasized personal encounters with God via dreams and visions.
- Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, said that during sleep, “the soul…imagines and beholds things above the earth, and often even holds converse with the saints and angels who are above earthly and bodily existence.”
- Augustine, bishop of Hippo, taught that dreams were important for understanding both human psychology and people’s relationship to God.
Power of dreams
Modern research shows the extraordinary significance of dreaming to our lives. Studies demonstrate the positive effects of dreaming on every dimension of our lives, including our outer life and inner world.
- Herman Riffel found that dreams help us realize every part of our potential and bring us into harmony with God, others, and ourselves.
- Christian psychiatrist Len Sperry says dreams can be therapeutic because they bypass our defense mechanisms and get quickly to the heart of a problem—even point toward a solution.
- Anglican priest and psychotherapist, Dr. Terrence McGillicuddy, discovered in his work as a hospice chaplain that dreams have power to move us from darkness and fear to a new place of light and hope. They are a source of spiritual insight into our lives, leading us to an authentic and profound experience with God.
Dreams are capable of charging us with great energy—motivating, inspiring, healing, and transforming our lives. John Newton, author of “Amazing Grace,” ceased being a slave-trading ship captain and became an Anglican clergyman because of a dream. Mother Theresa found the direction and energy for her ministry when she encountered St. Peter at the gates of Heaven in a dream.
Dreams are a gift from God
When I began to question God about the validity of dreams, He answered me in a dream: I was looking at a file cabinet with a drawer pulled open, with folders titled: “Guidance from Dreams” and “Guidance from the Shadow.”
The only conclusion I could make: Dreams are an amazing gift from our Creator God. Through them we can receive wise counsel, guidance, and direction for our lives. Today, I’ve got loads of journals, packed full of dreams I’ve collected. But more than this, I have lived my dreams; I have adventured down pathways I would never have gone without this wonderful world of dreams.
This Christmas buy yourself a special journal and begin to record your own gifts from God. Date them and give them a title, asking, what title does this dream want?
I will bless the Lord who has counseled me; indeed, my heart (inner man) instructs in in the night (while asleep)—Psalms 16:7