I’ve never really put much focus or attention into remembering my dreams at night. However, one moment in my life 5 years ago changed that. I was at a book launching party with one of my clients in Newport Beach, CA when another guest came up and asked me--out of the blue--whether or not I believed in God. Believe it or not 5 years ago was a devout atheist, so I told her that I did not believe in God. She was taken back by my response as if she had expected me to be a believer. After her astonished stare, she told me this: “You know, sometimes God speaks to people through their dreams. He may try to speak to you through a dream.” Then she turned away and I never saw her again. It wasn’t more than 6 months later that God spoke to me through one of my dreams. There just is no other explanation. Like my friend David Meysembourg wrote in a blog post, I was just like Joe:
- I was stuck in traffic one day, on my way home from work. I was listening to a radio talk show, and the guest was a rabbi who had written a book about God. A guy called in and said “Hey rabbi, I’m Joe and I’m an agnostic, and I’d like to ask you a question.”The rabbi says to Joe, “Could I ask you a question first Joe?”
Joe says “Sure”.
“Have you ever read the Bible? Torah? Koran?”
Joe says “No” to each question.
“Have you ever read any books about the Bible? Torah? Koran?”
Again, Joe says “No”.
The rabbi says, “Joe, you’re not an agnostic. You’re an ignoramus.”
I was an ignoramus! I had not read the Bible, but believed it to be false based on my ideology and the words of other atheists. I say this only to preface my dream in that I had no knowledge of people named in the Bible or events that occurred than what I heard about Adam & Eve, Noah or the nativity scene. So, one day when I’m half-awake and half-asleep, I get this dream that came to me like a vision. It was of two pieces of lumber attached at about a 45 degree angle, with the point of the angle pointing at my wife (who was laying next me) and the name Gabriel stenciled in red paint on the upper beam of wood. It only last a second. For some mysterious reason, words were put in my mouth as I woke up my wife and asked her, “Is there someone named Gabriel in the Bible?” She replied that there was, and that he was the angel that told Mary that she would give birth to Jesus. While I never could explain how that could have all transpired, I put it aside like a good atheist and went about my life as if nothing had happened. As I reflect back on that dream, I know why it came to me and who was behind it. It is a dream I recall often as it signifies a real, tangible moment that God met me where I was at and alerted me to his presence. It took several more crazy, inexplicable events like that and about 6 more months to finally get my attention, but it has been the most profound dream I have ever had. It alerted me to how dreams can have greater meaning than what we read in those books that evaluate the psychology of our dreams.
Has God shared something with you in a dream? Maybe something about this new year that you are excited about? I’d sure like to hear about it in the comment section below.
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Cool post Dave. God talks to me in dreams a lot, I just don’t often talk about it because a lot of people immediately discredit everything that follows those ‘God told me’ words, let alone when they include ‘God told me in a dream’.
But much of what we have planned for this year (releasing a church worship album, emigrating) I first saw in dreams, sometimes years in advance, almost always with no clue how they were going to happen. I love how God’s sovereignty works like that.
David: Thanks for sharing! It’s great that God has revealed himself to you in dreams that you are seeing come to fruition this year. How exciting!
As I’m sure you know already, even if people didn’t discredit your dreams, sometimes God lets us know those dreams aren’t for public expression, but prayer in secret to see how he unfolds it and brings it back to him and no other.
Blessings to you and @machroi for an amazing year :)
re the secret to be kept dreams – indeed. I love how God confirms those through other means too :)
Thanks for sharing Dave. Always love to hear more of your story and how God speaks to you and uses you. You are a blessed man!