Do dreams signify something?

Answer:

I am encouraged and glad that you are seeking truth and what God's word says. God has already blessed your son by having believing parents. "For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy" (I Corinthians 7:14). This passage still applies, even though it is dealing with one believing spouse and one unbelieving. Your children are blessed to have parents who can influence them and direct them down the right path of God. I want to also encourage you to keep giving thanks to God always, just as you have been doing (Colossians 3:17; James 1:17; Hebrews 13:15). Please don't ever stop doing this.

Dreams are an interesting topic. A lot of people try to interpret dreams but I know of no man who has given an interpretation of a dream correctly or seen it come true without the aid of God. Dreams 99.999999999% the time in history have been just products of our mind rearranging thoughts and connecting them like a filing system. All that happened in your day then is being filed with weird connections to your past. For example, a burrito I ate today connected me to Mexico where I had a burrito that smelled exactly the same. That night I might dream of Mexico with burritos or just Mexico. It is your mind reconnecting and filing all your memories away while you are asleep. It is an interesting outcome every time. For more information on how dreams work read: I keep dreaming about past bad relationships when they no longer matter because I am happily married.

Another way to see this is while you are awake the smell of brownies can make some people "feel good" and that good feeling is connected to past memories of brownies or a happy moment where brownies were present. But other people might have an experience with brownies where they were sick and every time they smell brownies makes them feel nauseated. My cousin has this problem with chicken sandwiches, I love them because of the smell and good memories, and he hates them because he was sick and it left bad memories. Our minds are constantly filing and making connections without us even conscious of it.

You have been thinking about God blessing your son so much that eventually, you dreamed it. All the thoughts about it during the day eventually came into your dreams.

Now that we got the technical part out of the way on how the mind can work, let's dive into God's word. "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation. For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke, being moved by the Holy Spirit" (II Peter 1:20-21). Prophecy (visions, dreams, etc) words given by God have ended. "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds" (Hebrews 1:1-2). To understand this topic better, see A reader who doesn't believe the gifts of the Spirit have ended.

Since prophecy is no longer needed, which includes visions and dreams, these no longer happen. God revealed His truth and everything pertaining to godliness in the Bible already. "Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust" (II Peter 1:2-4). Everything we need to know is already recorded for us and it doesn't need on-going revelation. "Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3).

Even if people do not agree that dreams, visions, prophecy have ended, we can look at it from another viewpoint.

A good question to ask is: Was there a point to your dream? You asked God for a blessing and it has been weighing heavily on your mind. It is always good to ask, but the dream merely pointed out what was already known The dream only showed what was already in the Bible. Was your son not blessed before this dream? Yes, he was because God word stated it. God's favor (being blessed) is already upon you and your family due to the fact you are following Him. The dream was more of a product of your desire for a verbal confirmation of what already was done by God long ago.

Don't stop asking God to bless or guide your son and your family. Asking God to bless your son can mean at times many different things. When he needs to be strong you always can pray to God saying that he keeps the faith. You can give other exhortation that is needed, to encourage and uplift your son to God. In my own experience, having a father uplift you and encourage you is a solid foundation for life. Prayer is a powerful thing. "The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit" (James 5:16-18).

Prayer is a powerful tool that God has given a Christian to use, especially when we are at war with sin and Satan. Pray fervently during times of trouble, joy, heartache, etc. for yourself and your family.

Miraculous gifts are no longer around, but that doesn't matter because we have His fully written Word, and we have a direct line to God to share everything with Him personally. There is nothing more wonderful than spending time with the Creator of the universe and have Him guide your ways by His word and listening to your prayers.

As Paul stated:

"We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing — as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the Spirit. And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins" (Colossians 1:3-14).

Alan Feaster