Prayer & Dreams

Nakita Kolov, the Russian nightmare.

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This is the Truth Network. Encouraging Prayer. God offers an open invitation for His people to talk with Him at any time about anything. On Encouraging Prayer, Dr. James Banks, author of the bestselling Prayers for Prodigals and many other books on prayer, provides weekly biblical insight to help you learn to love to pray.

And now, here's James. Oh, we have a fascinating topic for you today on Encouraging Prayer. James, it's hard to believe that over 200 episodes, we haven't covered this one, but today we're going to be talking about prayer and dreams. Robbie, you really got me thinking about this some time ago when off the air you were telling me about the way you pray sometimes before you go to sleep. You were telling me that you've told the Lord sometimes, if there's anything you want to communicate to me, please help me to be open to you even while I'm sleeping. And I found that so helpful because I know the Lord has communicated to me that way more than once. Yeah, I mean, it really is helpful because if you think about it, and our hearts and minds are busy with so many things during the day, you know, it's an effort for us to get quiet and listen to God. So, you know, He can reach us any time even while we're sleeping. I love what the psalmist said in Psalm 16, right?

You instruct my reigns in the night seasons, like, I want that. Acts 2 17 quotes Joel about this saying, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Well, maybe. I'm worried about that, but I think it's a lot more than just dreams, really. It's more about that. It's a lot more, but I think it's about a lot more than just dreams. I mean, have you ever noticed how you can hear God more clearly sometimes when you first wake up in the morning?

Absolutely, I have. I mean, actually that's at the time when I hear him. Beth, it's one of my favorite times to pray, where I even open my eyes and start thinking about the day. There are those quiet moments with him where, you know, you just sense there he is, and there you are, and you can hear him and communicate very clearly. Exactly. This is really about practicing the presence of God at any time of the day.

Yeah, it is. And that's exactly how we need to see this. This is something that happens under God's counsel, because this is a topic that you don't hear too much about, and I think it's important we set some scriptural guidelines, because sometimes when you do hear about it, you know, it can get a little weird. I've heard people will go to some interesting places, but, you know, dreams can be powerful things, and we can feel them poignantly emotionally, but the question is whether a dream genuinely is from God. So we have to take close to his word in this. And a great example of a powerful dream from God is found in Genesis 28, where Jacob dreams about angels ascending and descending on a stairway, and God spoke to him through that, and he made a beautiful promise to him.

All right. I mean, he told him that he'd be with him wherever he would go, and they would never leave him, and that he would bring him back to that place, right? And he continued his promise to Abraham that his children would be many and blessed.

Yeah, exactly. And after that, Jacob said, this is none other than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven. And you think about, you know, how sometimes when God's given you a dream, and you know it's from him, and, you know, you know that you know that it's from him. There's this beautiful story, and of course, God keeps his promise to Jacob, and there's scriptural precedent for this in several places, but there's also a place for caution that, again, we don't hear about it sometimes, but that's in Jeremiah 23, where God is speaking to false prophets.

Now, listen to what he says in that chapter in verse 25. I've heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my names. They say, I had a dream!

I had a dream! How long will this continue in the hearts of these lying prophets who prophesy the delusions of their own minds? Then he continues in verse 28, Let the prophet who has a dream recount the dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully.

For what has straw to do with grain, declares the Lord, is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces. So what these verses show us is that dreams have to be weighed against God's word most of all, so this helps us set some ground rules. You know, we have to recognize that Satan can use dreams to deceive us.

I mean, that's what he does. He's a deceiver, and finally, we have to recognize that a dream can also just be from our own mind. So there again, you see that Scripture is one of the best ways we can discern all of this. Everything has to be submitted to God's word and God's will that way.

Yeah, that is really, really helpful, James. So with that in mind, what are some of the ways we can generally open to God in this? Like you were saying, this is a great way for us to practice the presence of God, and I like the way you put it, just staying open to him, because so often we aren't listening. We're honest with ourselves, and this is a beautiful way for us to do that. So it starts by praying as we're putting our heads on the pillow, and by the way, aren't you glad your pillow isn't a rock like Jacob's was, you know? But you know, when we're still very awake, praising him, submitting ourselves to him, I like to think of the children's prayer, Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, and of course, that traditional version finishes, If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take, but I wrote another ending to it, which is, and wake me in the morning light with all things beautiful and bright. I like that because it's looking forward to him, and we can see this as a way of serving him. It really is, I mean, we can, because his word does tell us in Acts 2 17 that his spirit will speak to us in this way, so we really, you know, want to listen. Yes, we do, and it makes such a difference making God our last thought before we go to bed at night. I think it protects our hearts and minds, it can lead to some really beautiful moments with him. I mean, again, just look at that moment Jacob had. I've had some beautiful times as well, nothing quite like that, but some really special ones.

Oh, I'm all ears. Well, I remember when I was in college and working on a problem underneath my car, and I could not figure out how to fix it, so I fussed about it, finally prayed about it, and that night when I went to bed, I had a dream that I was under the car doing the repair in a particular way. Now, I had already spent hours on it, I was so flustered, but the next morning I got up and I went out and I did exactly what I had done in my dream, and the car was fixed in a matter of moments.

That is so cool. You know, I've had some special, special moments, there's no doubt, in dreams, and I've been just praying, as you had mentioned, God, you know, please, please help me to instruct my reins in the night season so I can see you actually in my dreams when I'm going through things. And here, really, just this week, I started to have some breakthrough where I was going through some struggles, and I actually called on God in the dream, which was really something I've really been praying about. And again, for somebody who's not familiar with that, it's just, it's a really neat thing to kind of live the Psalm. Well, as you often talk about, pray the prayers of the Bible. Yeah, it's awesome, you know, and this really is like praying the prayers of the Bible, and it's such a practical thing.

It doesn't have to be this ethereal, weird kind of thing. So, you know, to wrap up, the point is that God has wonderful things in store for us, not only when we're awake, but when we're sleeping as well, and we don't want to miss them. So Robbie, would you please close this with a prayer that we won't?

Oh, I would love to. Jesus, thank you that you continue to whet our appetite for prayers in all sorts of ways. And we pray that you would, as we lay our heads on our pillows tonight, that we will agree with the psalmist, you know, instruct our reigns in the night season, help us to sense you even in our dreams.

And we ask that through that, that you would be blessed, people would call more and more. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Amen. You can hear more from Pastor James by visiting his website, jamesbanks.org, or by visiting Peace Church in Durham, North Carolina. May God bless you and encourage you as you pray. This is the Truth Network.