Do You Know the Difference Between Dreams and Visions?

Do You Know the Difference Between Dreams and Visions?

 

Good Morning Friends,

 

Ever have a dream that is so compelling you want to go back to sleep? It never seems to work out. The experience seems to fade from our waking reality and even if we hit the snooze bar it is never quite the same experience. Acts says as in Joel that a time would come when old would dream dreams and the young would have visions. Do you have a dream for the people in the place where you live? Do your youth have a vision?  We do so need to embrace a unifying dream today that gives us sight to see. The Bible is filled with stories of dreams and dreamers. None of them is more important than Jesus’ extraordinary vision for us that, though love shared, we will become united in and through everything that God has destined us to be. Here we dream of a world that is a friend of grace…we dream to experience the Kingdom where we are woven into a body…a body  that sees vision through the eyes of love…love for each other. Here God places within our hopes and dreams that which He wants to fulfill for us.
And here when we dream of God’s dream for us… to do big things together… we join in a lasting legacy.  Do You Know the Difference Between Dreams and Visions?

 

Scripture: If prophets or those who divine by dreams appear among you and promise you omens or portents, and the omens or the portents declared by them take place, and they say, “Let us follow other gods” (whom you have not known) “and let us serve them,” you must not heed the words of those prophets or those who divine by dreams; for the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you indeed love the LORD your God with all your heart and soul. The LORD your God you shall follow, him alone you shall fear, his commandments you shall keep, his voice you shall obey, him you shall serve, and to him you shall hold fast.

 

Deuteronomy 13:1-4 (NRSV)

 

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

 

Galatians 5:6 (NIV)

 

After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, ‘Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.’

 

Genesis 15:1 (NRSV)

Then afterwards I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.

Joel 2:28 (NRSV)

 

Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

 

Proverbs 29:18 (KJV)

 

At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask what I should give you.” And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you; and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love, and have given him a son to sit on his throne today. And now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?” It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you.

 

1 Kings 3:5-12 (NRSV)

 

For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.

 

Jeremiah 29:11 (NRSV)

 

Who is she that looks forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?

 

Song of Solomon 6:10 (NRSV)

 

Message: Sometimes in the Bible God communicates to people in dreams. Some of them are symbolic and some involve explicit instructions from God. God has revealed some of His word through dreams. More than half of them appear in the book of Genesis with more than a quarter appear in the book of Matthew. And the balance are told in Judges, 1 Kings, and the book of Daniel. But really there are at least two kinds of dreams in the Bible when we think about it. One is a fantasy of our imagination drawn from out of sleep. And while they can have hidden meaning or even a direct message they are typically quite different from the dreams that are visionary aspirations and hopes that capture a desired ideal. Abimelech and Laban had a dreams that were a warnings. Jacob had two dreams and one was about a ladder to heaven and the other a call home. Joseph the son of Jacob had dreams about grain and stars and interpreted dreams of the cupbearer’s grapes and the baker’s baskets and the Pharaoh’s cows and ears of grain. Then there was the dream of the runaway barley loaf foreshadowing Gideon’s victory against the Midianites. We do not know the dreamer but the image is entertaining. When it comes to discussions about Biblical sleeping dreams that express more than a fantasy, the dream of Solomon that includes an offer of wisdom from God hits the mark. It is also a prayer. Nebuchadnezzar had a dream about a statue and a tree. Daniel had a dream about four beasts. Joseph of the New Testament had a dream of the back story of what happened to Mary and three dreams of an angel directing them when and where to go to avoid danger. The final sleeping dream in the Bible is the nightmare of Pilate’s wife regarding the innocence of Jesus. So what are we to make of dreams? Dr. Martin Luther King was about halfway through his prepared speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial addressing the crowd of 250,000 gathered on the National Mall back in 1963 when he was interrupted. Mahalia Jackson shouted out to him from the speakers’ stand: “Tell ’em about the ‘Dream,’ Martin, tell ’em about the ‘Dream’!” Then Dr. King pushed the text of his remarks to the side and began an extraordinary improvisation on the dream theme that would become one of the most recognizable refrains in the world. Friends, what dream has God given you? Do you long for family and friends to come to faith in Christ? Never stop dreaming that dream! Do you dream of God using you in a bigger way? Friends, in the space between dreams and authority and action of the spirit there in this tension we must weather so we might discover in our life the path of love and His provision that is far beyond our wildest dreams. So today dare to dream with a positive attitude about the possibilities of how God can shape us to achieve our God-given purpose. Today let our dreams and visions and prayers converge in a way that glorifies God.

 

Pray we become big dreamers for God. Pray we realize that dreams can still be realized and that God can help us begin to dream dreams again. Pray God’s big dream for us become an American Dream that is not a hallucination or worse a nightmare. Pray we realize that our dreams will be tested. Pray we remember God will offer reassurance for the dreams of divine providence. Pray we realize we are not in this dream of life alone. Pray we replace any fear we might have with faith. Pray we recognize the great reward that awaits us for fulfilling our God-given dream. Pray we marvel in the pleasure of what God can visualize in us…the delight of heavenly desires manifested on earth. Pray we believe in a future that invites vision and dreams and planning and prayer. Pray we realize we are to invest in people with the love of Jesus so the legacy of God’s mark on the world not be in vain. Pray that we fulfill a dream to become significant because of what God is doing in and through us. Pray also that we not dream our lives away. Pray we are surrounded by a family who can fuel our dreams but also puncture our illusions. Pray our commitment turns dreams into realities. Pray we fight for truth. Pray we fight for justice. Pray we fight for God’s way. Pray we realize it is about God, not ourselves. Pray we realize that our freedom is bound up in the freedom of others released to dream a vision of heaven on earth.

 

Blessings,

 

John Lawson