All Too Familiar Scenario
It's 2am, you just woke up from a dream and you fell troubled in your spirit. It's the same dream you've been having for weeks but it doesn't make any sense! Worst of all it's stuck on your mind all day long. Maybe it involved a loved one cheating on you, or you see yourself going through a maze over again until you wake up. Yup, Jesus Christ is speaking to you. But how do you figure out what he's trying to tell you? By using the same thing God uses to speak to you in the day, the bible!
Why Interpret Dreams?
God speaks to us in dreams, he gives us prophet warnings, disciplines us, tells us of the intentions of others, and guides us through life. But it's not always clear what Jesus is trying to tell us. Understanding how to is a skill that every child of God must learn and possess to understand God's messages. I could just tell you to use the bible and pray... but what fun would that be?! I'll be showing you HOW to use the bible to interpret dreams, how to pray and ask God to revel the interpretation, and what dangers are involved in the world of dream interpretation.
WARNING
Don't be deceived, only God can interpret dreams. Even if someone has a gift from God to interpret dreams, you have the same Holy Spirit they do. Never openly receive a prophetic word or dream interpretation without the Holy Spirit confirming it first.
You need to be sure you're not just googling "what does a cheating spouse mean in a dream" because the internet IS the Devil's playground. I've seen COUNTLESS websites pretending to be "Christian" but are really just new age evil, using things like "Angel Numbers" to "help" interpret dreams. You enter into the lions den when you fire off searches like that online. Now onto the ways you can receive understanding.
Let God Give You The Answer
It's more than simply mentioning it in a prayer when you talk to God. Countless times God has responded within a couple hours and given me the interpretation. But this only happens when I press deep into seeking an answer from God. And as you wait, don't come to any conclusions because this takes patience. No matter how long you have to wait for a full revelation, you must trust that God will answer you ! James 1:5 "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God who giveth to all me liberally and upbraideth not; and it will be given him."
Tools to Interpret
Here are some quick tips I've used that help speed up the interpretation phase and increase the amount of interpretations received:
Write your dreams down in a journal as soon as you get them
Right when you wake up, get out of bed, get into prayer, and ask God for understanding
Replace the phone with the bible before bed!
Fast more often! Doing this brings VERY intense and clear dreams
Give God 5-10mins in the day and just talk to him about your dreams like a regular person
Working Out The Interpretation
I'm going to assume you're already praying and you have your dream written down. Ask yourself, what was the most memorable part of the dream, what did it revolve around, or what was the climax? God can give you several purposes to a dream, so look at each scene and map it out.
Symbols
Next, we need to look at the symbols God uses in dreams. In Numbers 12:8 God tells us he'll make himself known to a prophet in a dream with "dark speeches", referring to coded communication. How do we decode this communication? Easy, we use the bible, but there is a specific way to do it.
Example
I'll give you an example of how you should do this. In some dreams I've had this past month, I would look into a mirror and I saw cavities in two of my back molars. The cavities grew and started rotting over the course of these dreams, and I started taking is more serious. I went into prayer about it and didn't get anything, then I did a quick search in the bible for tooth. I went to biblegateway.com and searched for "tooth" in the KJV bible. I found Proverbs 25:19 "Trusting in a treacherous man in time of trouble is like a bad tooth or a foot that slips." God then revealed to me I was putting my faith in false prophecies from a witch I recently came across.
Now You Try
Now you do the same! Take the subject you're targeting and spend some time searching for it in bible. In my case it was simple and very direct, but what happens when that's not the case? Simple, you look at the reoccurring context of the subject. Read the chapter the subject appeared in, what connects it to the other occurrences in the bible.
The more time you spend in the word of God, the more God will use the bible to speak to you. As you press deeper into the word of God, this interpretation gets faster and faster.
Conclusion
The main points are to use God's word as a guide not only in our lives, but for our dreams. It's as simple as easy as looking up a key subject in your dream, then see how to word is used in context. I'm praying this helps you get closer to God! Understanding dreams was a massive boost to my own walk!
Leave some of your dreams in the comments below!