Numbers 12:6 And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. Of course, this does not mean all prophets are dreamers. In fact, in the very next few verses, God emphasizes that He does not use dreams to communicate with Moses: Num. 12:7-8 "Not so, with My servant Moses, He is faithful in all My household; With him I speak mouth to mouth, even openly, and not in dark sayings (riddles, parables), and he beholds the form of the LORD. Likewise, neither does it mean that all dreamers are prophets. It means that when God reveals Himself or the issues on His heart to us in a dream, it is a PROPHETIC DREAM. Prophetic dreams are either glimpses of Him, (His Truth, His Character, His Principles) or, glimpses of His knowing view of people and situations.

We can identify such dreams by considering the definitions of the word "prophet," (OT #5012, 5030- Naba, Nabiy, NT- #4396 -Prophetes), from Strong/Thayer/Brown-Driver-Briggs. These definitions describe the qualities of APROPHETIC" dreams: 1) seeing, hearing, feeling, knowing under the influence of divine spirit, 2) being divinely inspired to poetry or song, 3) empowered, instructed, comforted, encouraged, rebuked, convicted, 4) interpreting oracles or other hidden things, 5) discerning and foretelling certain future events, 6) by God’s authority and command, pleading the cause of God.

WHO IS THE PROPHETIC DREAMER? Anyone can have prophetic dreams, including unbelievers. Abimelech received divine instruction in a dream. God told him that he was a dead man if he touched Sarah, Gen 20:3. The future was revealed to King Nebuchadnezzar (Dan 2), and Pharaoh, (Gen 4). Midianite soldiers in Jud. 7:13, discerned future destruction dreaming about a barley loaf and interpreted the barley loaf to be Gideon! Pilot’s wife in Mt 27:19 was convicted about dealing with Jesus through a dream. So, the "PROPHETIC DREAMER" label would apply to anyone who frequently has prophetic dreams. We, of course, are primarily interested in equipping the saints who are prophetic dreamers.

The goals of the PROPHETIC DREAMER are 1) to recognize which dreams are prophetic and 2) to know how to respond or utilize these "telegrams" from God. First let us consider this: Can a dream SEEM to be "divine" but not be from God? Evidently, because Jer 29:8-9 says: For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed. For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them, saith the LORD. If we are tempted to "hearken" to a dream, it evidently seemed supernatural! There is a counterfeit for prophetic dreams, like there is a counterfeit for any power tool God has.

Dreams springing up from self or satan can seem to have prophetic qualities. Let’s compare the qualities of godly prophetic dreams to possible counterfeits: 1) Being under the influence of divine spirit is one definition. Divine means "proceeding from deity." If an idolater has a false god, then his so-called divine inspiration is false. 2) Being inspired to poetry or song can come from a prophetic dream; yet the human spirit can get inspired by creation rather than Creator and burst out in idolatrous song. The human soul can be inspired by strong desire or lust in dreams and break forth in poetry or song also. 3) Being empowered, instructed, comforted, encouraged, rebuked, convicted by a godly dream is awesome, but there are also strong counterfeit motivations we must recognize. Hatred, bitterness, vengeance, fear and desire for approval are just a few of the human soul’s strong drives that can come across like a holy edict in a dream. 4) Interpreting oracles or other hidden things by God’s anointing is wondrous, but we must be careful not to be influenced by the strong man in our world, who was developed and finessed by WORSHIP of MAN instead of GOD. Ungodly psychology and psychiatry bears offspring like Freud, who worshiped sexuality and interpreted every dream through the filter of sex. This influence can cause us to accuse or judge others under the guise of "revealing hidden things" in interpreting dreams. 5) Discerning and foretelling certain future events can definitely be a prophetic dream from God, but the human soul’s desire to control circumstances or people, even for worthy goals can strongly influence dreams - and that is definitely not prophetic! 6) By God’s authority and command pleading the cause of God can be a God-ordained, prophetic dream, but pleading our own cause for SELF-justification and SELF-will can sometimes be a powerful substitute stimulus for dreams.

The safeguard against deception through DREAMS is RELATIONSHIP, with God and the Body of Christ. The Holy Spirit is faithful to point out wrong motives and SELF’s hidden agendas or drives that could SIMULATE prophetic dreams! The Holy Spirit will bear witness with the True INTERPRETATION of truly PROPHETIC DREAMS. Rick Joyner’s article, (Morning Star Journal, Vol 8, #4), shows us the absolute necessity of the safeguard of RELATIONSHIP. Constantine, the Emperor of Rome, claimed to have a prophetic vision in AD 313. He saw a cross in the sky and heard the words, "In this sign conquer." Some Historians viewed this as his conversion and a great conquest for Christianity because Constantine married the Church and the State, making it mandatory for politicians and the people to be a Christians. Some Historians don’t believe he really had a conversion and believed his experience was really the conquest of Christianity which allowed the spirit of the antichrist to take his seat in the very temple of the Lord, the Church. They also believed that the mandatory Christianity was simply a smart political move because Constantine realized that the indestructible faith of Christians was the only thing that could bind his crumbling empire together. Still other historians believed he was truly converted and had good intentions but he was ignorant of the most important principles of the faith; and so he wrongly used his influence as Emperor to steer the church into the Dark Ages. His ignorance of principles and faith display his lack of RELATIONSHIP with GOD and the CHURCH. So, even God-ordained dreams can be perverted and misunderstood without a vital, living relationship with God.

PROPHETIC DREAMERS sometimes learn how to respond to their dreams by learning what NOT to do! The main thing we DO NOT DO is ignore a prophetic dream. I knew of three dreamers who had dreams about the same church. One dreamer saw a gigantic snake filling the stairs of the church and stretching its head out the front door. Another dreamer saw the same church from the platform and everything looked normal, but from the back of the auditorium there were snakes under the pews. The third dreamer saw the worship leader seducing a woman on a bed in the balcony. Snakes represent potential for evil or deception in the flesh. The snake was headed out the door like it had already accomplished its mission. The fact that it spanned the top story as well as the first floor spoke of its effect on the entire church, leadership and members. The second dream indicated that the infiltration was not obvious, rather it was behind the scenes. The third dream pinpointed the evil to be a sensual, adulterous spirit coming against the church.

Eventually, the effects of the attack surfaced. Adultery was exposed in several homes and adulterous seed was sown to trouble more homes in the future. One of those that fell during the siege was the worship leader in the third dream. At the time of the dreams, none of the dreamers knew the dreams were PROPHETIC - revealing hidden things. They were simply troubled by the dreams. Had the dreamers realized they were dreaming "prophetic dreams" and had they known how to respond, they could have embraced the prophetic authority of pleading God’s cause in prayer and interceded, allowing their faith to usher in God’s intervention!

PROPHETIC DREAMERS have life-changing experiences as God walks through their night hours. I do not think it is possible to discuss PROPHETIC DREAMERS without discussing INTERCESSION. Dreams and visions are part of the promise of the prophetic outpouring of the last days. And just as intercession is about going "between" and building bridges, likewise, the prophetic is always "between." The prophetic builds a bridge between God’s mouth and man’s ear, between the Eternal and the temporal, between what is and what is to be! By God’s authority and command, the PROPHETIC DREAMER can plead the cause of God - in all CONFIDENCE! Jer 27:18 - But if they be prophets, and if the word of the LORD be with them, let them now make intercession to the LORD of hosts, that the vessels which are left in the house of the LORD, . . . go not to Babylon (CONFUSION). The PROPHETIC DREAMER has a mandate: + to diligently develop a hearing ear, + to discern the Lord’s body and be a ligament that supplies, + to receive hope, wisdom and revelation for future reference and + to usher in divine intervention by pleading God’s cause.

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