In Dreams

Job 33: 14-16
"For God does speak-now one way, now another- though man may not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men as they slumber in their beds, he may speak in their ears and terrify them with warnings"

I found this verse today and i thought it very interesting for a couple different reasons. First it struck me because last night i had a wonderful dream about my son. Crazy thing is, i don't have one, and my wife isn't pregnant (at least not that we know of). It seemed so real and made me feel so good, it took away fears that i had about having a child. I, for the first time am really excited about starting a family. I don't dread it like i did. I am not sure why i dreamed what i did, but the result has been amazing. I benefited from this dream.
I am sure that there are many who spend a lot of time analyzing dreams, but whatever the reason i believe that it is not just some subconscious thought surfacing, i believe it comes directly from an outside force. The verse that i quoted talks about God using dreams to talk to His people, the bible also has examples of demons using dreams. Why would dreams be used by either? Well for one thing, they have a captive audience. We aren't as likely to be distracted and when it is a powerful enough image, we don't soon forget it. Sometimes it shakes our very foundations, and sometimes it makes us feel really good about something, sometimes it brings peace. My mom has had a difficult time dealing with the passing of her father, like many of us. She told me about a dream she had before he died in which she was a little girl and she had gone with him to some Bible lectureship (which he was very fond of) and she looked down from the window in the room she was staying and saw him standing there speaking with a lot of his preacher friends and then she saw him look up at her in the window, gave her that big wonderful smile of his, and held up his trusty Bible. That image helped get her through the worst of it. She told me about it and said that it helped prepare her for losing him, that he was going to a place where he was surrounded with other heroes of the faith. He was going to be in his element. i have had dreams that helped prepare me for certain events, comfort me in distressful times, and sometimes help me let go of burdens and weights i had been carrying. These dreams, the ones that i remember are only a portion of the dreams that i have, according to lots of study on the subject. I wonder how much of those dreams i don't remember are used by external forces. I wonder what kind of effect these dreams have on me in all the areas of my life. It could be that i am making too much of this, it could also be that i haven't given it enough concern. I do know that my prayers before i go to sleep have been nonexistent. That needs to change. i need to have that time at the close of the day to talk with God to help me sort through the day that has just finished and to help prepare for the day to come. i also feel i need to be asking for God to help me in my sleep, to enter my dreams. Ask him to guide me in anyway He desires. I guess i need to consider why God would not be in my dreams and some other force would. The best and most likely way to know would be to honestly ask "am i filled with the Spirit?" The best way to be guided by God is to let His Spirit, His Wind, blow you. Why not allow Him to work when He can get your undivided attention. Why not ask Him. I may have been missing out. God, please affect my dreams. Be in my waking, be in my sleeping, God, be in me guiding me in the best way.

God to enfold me,
God to surround me,
God in my speaking,
God in my thinking.
God in my sleeping,
God in my waking,
God in my watching,
God in my hoping.
God in my life,
God in my lips,
God in my soul,
God in my heart.
God in my sufficing,
God in my slumber,
God in mine ever-living soul,
God in mine eternity.
ancient Celtic oral traditions - carmina gadelica

raymond, a child of the King