The dreams of common men and kings are detailed in ancient writings. The Egyptian and Assyrian dream books are just two examples of how ancient cultures revered and honored dreams. Within these and other ancient dream records are divinely inspired encounters that seem to elevate themselves from the more common of dreams. These divinely inspired dream adventures did not come to an end with historical advancements.
I’m a first hand witness to thousands of dreams and every so once in awhile a dreamer tells me one of these divinely inspired dreams. I call these God Dreams.
What is a God Dream? A God Dream is a dream that carries an indescribable presence within its atmosphere. God dreams indirectly communicate the sense of a guiding hand and an unseen power. They are most often brightly lit with white light. Their colors are vibrant and infused with light. Joy and peace are also hallmark features of a God Dream.
A Simple, Obvious God Dream
To further define what a God dream is I thought I’d share one of the most basic, obvious God dreams I’ve ever heard. As the dreamer was falling sleep they heard the words “There’s a time for victory in the house.” Then, as they fall into a deeper sleep they heard someone make reference to the fact that one encounter with God can change everything.
When the dreamer fell into the deepest sleep of all, they saw a little boy running as fast as he could away from his father. He was crying and saying, ” You didn’t do this for me, you didn’t do that for me.” The boy’s father ran up behind him , caught up with him in a few seconds, swept him off his feet and wrapped his arms around him. The son immediately stopped crying. The biggest warmest smile took over his face.
The scene disappeared and the words “You’re often in delay.” appeared against a black backdrop. End of Dream
The dreamer awoke feeling completely at peace. They immediately knew they’d had a God dream.
You may have never experienced spoken words bookending a dream before. This structure sandwiches metaphorical meaning between two layers of literal meaning. Spoken words are almost always literal in dreams, and the visual aspects of a dream are almost always metaphorical. Although this dream may seem simplistic, it executed its message perfectly.
The spoken sentences both point to the visual part of the dream. “There’s time for victory in the house” and “One encounter with God can change everything” are both referencing what’s going on in the body of the dream. The little boy running away from his father complaining about what He didn’t do is a metaphorical description of how we act sometimes as children of God. The dream is communicating the fact that God loves his children even as they’re running in the opposite direction. His response is to catch up to his child and sweep them off their feet.
The meaning of this dream is to show the dreamer His love. The words that immediately follow the dream scene, “You’re often in delay” we often delay an encounter with God’s love because of a delay on our part.
This dream is very much like a parable Jesus would tell. On the surface it seems like a simple picture story, but as you consider it and meditate on it, you soon realize there are great truths to be discovered within its simplicity.
God Dreams — The Ultimate Spirit Guides
God Dreams are tailor made for each individual dreamer, as all dreams are. This means there are no cardboard cut out God Dreams. If you know anything about God this makes sense. I’m a big fan of being intentional about my dreams. One night I decided to be intentional and ask for a specific dream. I didn’t ask for a God Dream. I asked for a lucid dream.
I’m riding in the passenger’s seat of my uncle’s pickup. It’s nighttime and he’s driving to his hose on a single lane dirt road. My mom’s in the backseat although the pickup has a small single cab.
My Uncle Jerry asks me for something from the visor. I pull it down and a wallet and a pair of glasses falls out. I hand him the items and flip the visor back up because I can’t see anything ahead of us. My uncle quickly reaches over and pulls the visor back down. Something else falls out and I catch it. When I flip the visor back up I notice my uncle’s driving his white pickup half on and half off the raised dirt road.
The next part happens super fast, one thing right after another.
The pickup comes to the end of the dirt road. There’s a small ramp like 1 foot high at the end of the road and we go over the ramp and flying into the back yard. I see an above ground pool and we crash into the pool going rather fast. I’m instantly engulfed in water. Everything else disappears.
Submerged within the water I think I better open my door and get out is I can make it to the surface of the water. As soon as I have that thought, my mom grabs me around my right wrist and begins pulling me through the water.
I’m suddenly out of the water and standing in a small amusement park. It’s nighttime and there’s a heavy layer of fog about forty feet above the entire park. There’s an old man in front of me and two younger kids on my left. I instantly knew I was in the dream I asked for before I went to sleep. A black and white lucid dream. I start exclaiming “No way!”
Armed with the knowledge that I could do anything I wanted in this dream I began exploring the amusement park. I quickly realized there were very few people there. I’d seen the old man and tow younger people at the onset but they weren’t around anymore. there was a ferris wheel on one side of me and another ride I can’t remember across from it.
I turned around and saw empty walkways all around me. One path went off to the left, one to the right and one straight ahead. I took the path to the righting walked the direction of a a long carnival booths, one after another. As I walked I saw a woman walking next to me. She looked straight ahead as if determined to get somewhere. I stepped up to her and asked “Who are you? What do you represent?” She paid no attention to means kept walking straight ahead.
I then saw a little kiosk with a woman about twenty one years old engaged in conversation with a girl of about ten. They were standing a few feet away from an ice cream freezer, you know the kind at Baskin Robins with the big tubs of ice cream in them? These two girls appeared to be in the background of the dream and I wondered if I could interact with them.
I walked right up to them and asked for some ice cream. The older of the two pointed to something right in front of me and seven or eight small ice cream cones appeared in front of me. Each one was topped with a scoop of ice cream out the size of a marble. I said “No, I want some ice cream out of the big tub” and reached my right hand around into the freezer and grabbed some ice cream with my bare hand as I looked her in the eye. She didn’t seem to notice. I turned around and walked back the way I came. I ate the ice cream in my hand, only the opposite hand was sticky.
I heard ice cream girl complain to the old man. She said something like “Why is he asking for ice cream out of the big bins when there was ice cream right in front of him?”
I’m standing at the intersection of the paths again and as I’m trying to decide which way to go I see this image in the foreground of my vision. I’m looking at a guy in a suit standing on checkered tile. The tile he’s standing on is the same design as his suit, white with little orange and yellow hamburgers all over.
I wake up. I look at the clock on my phone and I’ve only been asleep an hour. I start writing down my dream experience. It was over all too quickly.
Can A God Dream Look Like A Nightmare?
The direct answer to this question is yes. Doesn’t seem possible? Read on. I’ve found an example from an ancient text that describes exactly that.
Now Abraham moved on from there to the region of Negev and lived between Radesh and Shur. For awhile he stayed in Gerar, and there Abraham said of his wife Sarah, “She is my sister: Then Abimalech King of Gerar sent for Sarah and took her.
But God came to Abimalech in a dream one night and said to him “you’re as good as dead because the woman you have taken; she is a married woman.”
This is not a dream one would typically think of as a God dream. That said, there’s no denying this dream is a God Dream. It can’t be anything else because God showed up in the dream and gave Abimalech direct instructions. All we’re told about this dream is that God speaks specific things to Abimalech. What He speaks is to the point and terrifying.
In my dream study I held weekly meetings where dreamers would come and share their dreams. One particular person was in the habit of saying things like “God wouldn’t do that” in reference to dreams. It’s interesting to me how this person could be so sure of that given the unlimited nature of dreams and of God. Believe me, God can do anything within or without a dream.
God Dream Word Play
Not all God dreams are as obvious as the dream I shared at the beginning of this blog. Some God dreams can be identified by what’s hidden in plain sight. I’ve included one last dream below that does a pretty good job of doing just that.
Here’s the dream:
I’m walking down a sidewalk in a familiar area when I saw a woman walking toward me. I couldn’t make out her face but she was walking a Wheaten Terrier. The dog was pulling so hard on the leash trying to get to me that she could barely hold it back. The dog was so excited to se me and would have tackled me if it was not on a leash. I wasn’t at all afraid.
End of dream
On the surface this dream seems ordinary. There’s really nothing special about it. The dreamer is walking along a sidewalk in a familiar area when she encounters a woman walking a Wheaten Terrier. These dogs are known to be friendly and was eager to greet the dreamer. This particular dreamer loves dogs and has some experience with Wheaten Terriers. It all seems perfectly ordinary until the dreamer hears the song. SHe had an inner knowledge that the song they heard was being sung over her life. This seems like the only hint that this dream is a God dream. It’s not.
There’s a subtle word play in the dream. The word dog backwards is god. This dreamer was given to this dreamer in order to show them just how God feels about them. A sort of pictorial love letter. to the dreamer. The excitement the Terrier shows coupled with the song sung over the dreamer are both signs of affection.
It may seem strange that God would appear to the dreamer as a dog. As I spoke with the dreamer about their feelings toward dogs, they told me they love dogs and they knew someone who had a Wheaten Terrier and was fond of the breed. It made complete sense to the dreamer that God would appear to them as a dog.
What about the woman walking the dog? The dreamer said they didn’t make out the woman’s face. This can be interpreted as faceless. Sometimes God makes an appearance in dreams as a faceless person. Check out this blog on the Biblical Meaning of a faceless person for more on how God appears faceless in dreams.
Recognizing God within Your Dreams
God dreams are as fascinating and mysterious as the God encounters outlined in scripture. Each one is different. He very rarely does things the same way twice, and you can count on the fact that your God dream is going to look much different than you expect. Still, you can set your dream next to these characteristics we know are inherent to every God dream and compare them.
- Bright white light
- Absolute, complete peace
- The presence of at least one faceless person
- A weighty presence within the atmosphere of the dream
- Excitement, peace or the sense of euphoria upon waking
Whatever your God dream looks and feels like, it’s very likely you won’t recognize it’s a God dream right away. As we know from scripture, God often hides Himself and conceals great truth within simplicity. I’m referring to the parables Jesus often told. In fact, dreams are a sort of night parable. Dreams were His idea, and they exhibit many traits of His personality. This is why the more you know the person of God the easier it is to recognize Him within your dreams.
Recognizing God dreams for yourself can be a bit tricky and it takes some practice. That said, don’t be surprised if you awaken from a dream and immediately know you’ve just had a God dream.
After all, He is God.
I’ve included some links below that I’ve found helpful while I was searching out my own God dreams. I’d also encourage you to share a God dream or suspected God dream in the comments below. This can be an encouragement to others and help them identify their own God dreams.
How Do You Know if Your Dream is From God?
CJ