Does God Communicate With Us In Dreams?

[Ian Gentles]

There are a few instances in scripture but not many.
I hear, or read, of folks telling that God spoke to them in a dream. I must admit this has never happened to me. Does God do this, and if so how often does it occur? Is it Biblical? what is our theology on such a matter?

[Barbara Moulton]

I have had three dreams in my life which brought me a spiritual message and/or spiritual comfort.

I am not sure if God actually communicated with me in the dream or if my mind simply was processing in my sleep, the things that were on my heart at the time.

Regardless...God USED those dreams. And for that I give Him praise.

[Marg Webb]

He does with me and I know it is Him and I know they are real.
My Catholic friends and Pentecostal friends never question me if I share someting, but I NEVER tell a Nazarene.

[Genevieve Boller]

Yes, He has spoken to me many times through dreams.

When I accepted Christ I was 16 years old. I lived in a non-Christian home and had, for the most part, non-Christian friends. The girl who led me to Christ came and took me to her bible study for a couple of weeks, but then my step-monster made it too difficult on me, and I felt like an outsider there, and it was just not worth it to me at the time I guess...

Because of my situation I had no one to teach me anything about how to be a christian. I didn't really know how to pray, how to live differently--all I knew was the story of Christ, the story of Christmas, and the 10 Commandments.

So, I just talked to God. I usually spoke to Him at night as I was falling asleep, and every single one of my prayers was an asking-for-help prayer (I had a rough life and needed help desperately) and I didn't know of any other reason to pray except to ask for help with something.

Since I didn't know how to "listen" to God, or anything else for that matter, I believe that was why the Lord used dreams to tell me things. Over the years I've become very good at deciphering them and figuring out the message He has for me, although most dreams are really just me trying to decipher myself. :rolleyes:

In 2007 I had two dreams that I know for sure were from the Lord, with specific messages, and I had a number of other ones that helped me to understand things on my spiritual journey, and those may not have been directly from the Lord but He used them to help me along my way.

One of those two dreams was a specific premonition that came to pass exactly one week after I had the dream. That was the first and only premonitory dream I've ever had and it rattled my cage pretty well (it was about someone I dearly love, and therefore very personal).

He does with me and I know it is Him and I know they are real.
My Catholic friends and Pentecostal friends never question me if I share someting, but I NEVER tell a Nazarene. (Marg Webb)

I've only shared my dreams with my husband and two friends in my current church. It never occurred to me that I should have checked to see how Nazarenes feel about that first, but neither one of these women was anything other than supportive.

Does the CotN have a stance on dreams?

[Anne and Dwayne Hood]

Don't worry about telling me about dreams. God worked that way in the Bible. I fully believe in them, but that does not mean that every one of them, is to get a certain message across to me. But, what is strange, is the ones that are meaningful, usually linger with me, after awakening, especially, after I have shared it with Dwayne. But, the meaningless ones, I usually, do not remember, and if I do, it might be something crazy and outrageous, possibly due to being over tired, or from something I have eaten, or heard about. We know several people that believe in dreams.

[Roland Hearn]

I certainly think He can. I would be a little skeptical if someone was wanting me to put confidence in them based on a dream, make that a lot skeptical. I did get a message to preach once in a dream that worked real well, actually it has happened a couple of times but like Barbara said, I think it was probably my mind processing while I was asleep.

I am convinced though that God will use whatever means a person will hear best through and that may mean dreams for some.

I had a very close friends whose salvation came entirely through a dream. She was attending a liturgical church and they had a regular bible study but she had never heard of a personal encounter with God. One night she had a dream that Jesus walked down a hill to her and offered her a gift. She told him to go back up the hill because she wasn't sure she should be taking gifts from Him, it bothered her a little in the construct that she had developed her understandings of God. It happened each night for three nights. After that she asked the bible study leader what she should do, he said "try taking the gift." The next night she had the same dream, opened the gift a light came out went in the air and then into her mouth. That would have been very strange except Phineas Bresee had a very similar experience. She left the church of which she was apart and eventually became a pastor in the Church of the Nazarene. I don't think the church would reject anyone on the basis of hearing from God through dreams.

[Hans Deventer]

Does the CotN have a stance on dreams?

Well, if they do, it's not in the Manual. But that doesn't say everything.

[Bob Evans]

One of the most effective evangelism events is the muslem community is God appearing to people in dreams during ramadahn [sp] and pointing them to Jesus. Churches in these areas and countries are positioning themselves to reinforce the dreams during this time.

Lindell browing speaks of this in his misisonary presentations.