Jeremiah 29:8 “For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you, nor listen to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed.”
As I have already mentioned, it is unscriptural for believers to seek dreams from the Lord. Those who do, open themselves up to deception. The above quoted passage of scripture tells us that we can cause dreams to happen, but warns us against listening to those dreams. The reason given for us to not listen to those dreams is because they will deceive us, for those dreams originate from the same source that false prophets and diviners get their input, which is the devil. The Lord knows what He is talking about, and so if He counsels us against the practice of seeking after dreams then we should listen to His counsel.
Job 4:12-21 “Now a word was secretly brought to me, and my ear received a whisper of it. (13) In disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, (14) Fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake. (15) Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair on my body stood up. (16) It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; There was silence; Then I heard a voice saying: (17) 'Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker? (18) If He puts no trust in His servants, If He charges His angels with error, (19) How much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before a moth? (20) They are broken in pieces from morning till evening; they perish forever, with no one regarding. (21) Does not their own excellence go away? They die, even without wisdom.”
In the above quoted account in scripture we see that Eliphaz the Temanite recounted a dream that he had. We can obviously see that a demon had spoken to him in his dream, nevertheless Eilphaz had been deceived into thinking that this was the Lord’s counsel that he was receiving. At the end of the book of Job, God spoke to Eliphaz and rebuked him for his foolish counsel that he had given Job, which included his dream that he had recounted to Job (Job 42:7-8). And so the point is clear in scripture. Do not seek after dreams, for our enemy will accommodate those who do. I will close off this section with an example of one of the dreams that I have received from the Lord Jesus. In my dream, I found myself standing at the back of a large auditorium. The auditorium was full, and a bible teacher (who he was, I do not know, for I did not recognise him) had taken the podium and was about to begin his teaching on a certain subject. As the bible teacher began to speak, I was conscious of the Lord Jesus coming from behind me and standing alongside of me. We were both standing there listening to what this bible teacher had to say. Although in my dream, I recall turning to speak to the Lord, I have no recollection of what He looked like. I found myself saying to the Lord that I would have to judge what this man taught, based on it being in line with the word of God. The Lord Jesus said nothing in response, He just looked at me. I then found myself making the following statement to the Lord which shocked me when I said it. I said, “Lord, even if You were to teach me something that was contrary to the word of God, that I would have to challenge You on that teaching”. And then I began to weep and tearfully I said to Him, “Because Lord, if we do not have Your word to guide us then we have nothing, and we are completely vulnerable.” Again, the Lord Jesus said nothing to me, but the moment I made that statement the power of God came on me and I instantly woke up with the tangible anointing of God all over me as I lay in bed. And tearfully I began to thank Him and praise Him for His word. The Lord gave me this dream as I was preparing to go back into ministry and He wanted to reinforce the mandate He had given me, which was to preach His word. The Lord Jesus has given us His word which has been recorded for us in both the new and Old Testament. The church is entering a time when more and more false teachings and false doctrines will be brought into the world and into the church. Now, more than ever, the believer needs to be grounded in the word of God so that we will not be deceived in any way.
Michael E.B. Maher
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