Dreams and Dream Interpretation

By Joseph Ho

Jan 23rd, 2009. Edited Dec 2021

What is a Dream?

In the bible, Proverbs 18:16, “A gift opens the way for the giver and ushers him into the presence of the great.”

Dream is defined as a sequence of images that passes through a sleeping person, much like a video show except that the emotions are also contained within the dream. Everyone have dreams but most people do not know that their dreams do have significant impact on their real life. Dream serves to warn, instruct, direct, and foretell future events in a person’s life. Dream is a form of communication between the soul and the mind, it brings to light the inner voice of the subconscious from the spirit of the person. Thus, dreams can be classified into different category, as in personal, oppressive and prophetic.

Are dreams significant in a person’s life?

Dreams are the messages of the night as mentioned in the bible. It is also called visions of darkness, or dark messages, because it is during deep sleep that our inner soul becomes sensitive to the spiritual realm. The messages or events in the dreamscape are highly coded and symbolic in nature. These symbols are specific to the dreamer and so a dream dictionary cannot be accurately applied for dream interpretation. Symbols, animals, furniture, location settings, people, all have different meanings during different times of dreams.

Dreams can truly benefit the recipient only when it is properly interpreted. A wrong interpretation can result in a lost of benefits. Some dreams occur from having too much activity during the day and it only reflects our mood, this kind of dream does not carry any significant messages. There are however, certain dreams which bring us warning of future events in our life and these are prophetic dreams and we should pay special attention.

Types of Dreams

There are basically 3 major types of dreams.

Type I is the carnal dreams that come from the internal spirit of the person.  Dream can also speak of some past troubles that we have not properly dealt with when fear, anger or some strong emotions are the common cause of the factors that become embedded in our spirit nature. This is also the inner voice of the subconscious trying to communicate with the person’s mind.

This is also the kind of dreams we get when we are hyper active during the day and our spirit is still recording the events of the day despite our body coming to rest in the sleep mode. This type is more confusing and leads to disturbed sleep. Images during this sleep will be haphazard and disjointed.

Type II is the Spiritual Prophetic dreams which is sent by God to foretell the future. This type of dream almost always speaks about the future and they are the most important ones we are to take note of. These dreams provide warnings, instructions and also shows the destined events that will occur with certainty. It is meant to guide the recipient to accept the unchangeable reality of their definitive destiny.

Type III is the dream we get when we are being oppressed by evil spiritual forces. The presence of an evil spirit near to the proximity of our sleeping location can interfere with our sleep; connecting to our spirit.

How are dreams interpreted?

 Dreams Interpretation is a gift, it cannot be easily learnt in a class setting, but it however can be imparted by a spiritual mentor. Impartation refers to the spiritual laying of hands upon the person and saying a prayer over them.

Dream is a form of divine communication that connect God with to us since God promised to tell his servant what is to come. Dream is a more complete and authentic communication because it is a four-dimensional message, it contains a setting location, events, people, objects, feelings or emotions and words or symbols.

The dreams are interpreted much the same as the instantaneous flow of prophetic utterance. Peace with assurance that comes from the interpretation will be the only guidance that ascertains the truth. Of course this peace and assurance is of the Holy Spirit and it also has to conform to the biblical word of God. In the book of Hosea 12:10, the bible says “I have also spoken by the prophets, and have multiplied visions; I have given symbols through the witness of the prophets.” This refers to prophetic dreams.

The meaning which appears in the interpreter’s mind comes naturally almost as if he knows the answers before he speaks. But this knowing is not of human origin it is divinely injected into the human spirit (in this case the interpreter) so that the meaning will not be abused or manipulated for selfish reasons. Although anyone can claim that they can interpret dreams, the difference between true and false interpretation is that the truth will come to pass but the false interpretation will not come to pass.

Philippines 4:7, “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Isaiah 9:6, “For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting father, Prince of Peace.”

1Corin 14:33, “For God is not a God of disorder but of peace.”

JOSEPH THE KING OF DREAMS

Joseph’s first dream was about rising high above his brothers. His brothers’ 11 salves bow down to his salves of straw. This is symbolic of his brothers’ works of their hands will be beneath that of Joseph’s earthly works.

Joseph’s second dream of rising was about his brothers and parents. The sun moon and eleven stars pay homage to him.

When God sends you two dreams on the same matter, it means the event will surely come to pass without fail. The bible says that a matter must be established by two unchangeable facts; Matthew 18:16, 2 Corinthians 13:1 and Deuteronomy 19:15.

So why did God favor Joseph? Joseph honored his father Jacob and was obedient and trustworthy so he was chosen to be trained in God’s school of the pits. In the natural, if a person is favored by his father, it represents that the favor of God is upon the person. It coincides with the biblical verse “On Earth as it is in Heaven”, what happens in the natural first occurred, and was conceived in heaven.

In Psalm 32:8, Joseph was chosen to display God’s glory; naturally God showed him favor else he would be in prison for a long time. He was told the future of what God is going to do to Egypt but he was also told how to solve the problem. Knowing is only half the solution, without the how to do it – knowledge is useless. God does not give us a dream of warning just for us to pray about it, in fact, we are to order our natural life around the dream so that we will not be affected by the crisis. Otherwise, the dream given will be useless to the receiver. Abraham Lincoln was given a dream about his assassination and he choose to do nothing about it by ignoring the warning which led to his death. Certain warning can be prevented by our actions in response to the dream we are given. Some dreams are definitive and thus can not be changed by our actions.

Joseph’s Interpretation of Dreams

Someone’s problem becomes our promotion and God’s making us famous by marketing us to the key people in the world.

Proverbs 18:16

New International Version

¹⁶ A gift opens the way and ushers the giver into the presence of the great.

Joseph’s first dream interpretation for the Cupbearer and the Baker was a preparation for him to meet the most powerful man in Egypt. In Genesis 40:1, God caused them to dream, and they were put into prison to connect to Joseph. This happens so that when Pharaoh had a dream, he will know who to seek help from. God is logical and works within his physical laws and ways. He is a God of decent order.

Joseph’s second dream interpretation regarding the Pharaoh’s two different dreams; one about the corns and the other about the cows was God’s divine plan to exalt Joseph over Egypt. God caused Pharaoh to have those dreams.

Only the anointed one from God is able to answer this riddle because God was the one who sent the message and he also sends his interpreter to provide answers. Does God still send us dreams today? Yes, He does. Why does he do it still, since the Holy Spirit has been given to everyone who is a true believer? Notice that Wisdom comes from God and not all believers have the full wisdom of the Holy Spirit. Look at the gifts of the Holy Spirit; he does not give one man all the gifts except in the case of Jesus.

Most Christians and some bible teachers don’t understand how the baptism of the Holy Spirit comes about. When someone is baptized in water, they do not automatically receive the Holy Spirit as some preachers will insist. Truth is truth and we cannot insist that something must happen just because we believed it to be so. We can believe in anything we choose, but if it is not in accordance with the Kingdom of God then whatever we believe may not happen at all. This explains why many Christians are still not walking in the full blessings of God because they have believed in strange theology that is not an attribute in the Kingdom of God. Only Jesus Christ is the baptizer of the Spirit and only Jesus can authenticate a gift and since it’s a gift, not all people are called to be interpreter of dreams. This gift is an impartation from God, and it cannot be learnt, taught nor given a doctorate to prove your authority or knowledge in it. That’s why in Jesus’ time, he didn’t bother to set up a school of higher learning for his teachings, even fishermen could be part of his ministry without any accolades. That’s the beauty of serving an Almighty God, transcending all human understanding; who will choose, train and equip his servants to do his work.

My people suffer from the lack of knowledge, Hosea 4:6. What kind of knowledge? Those who walk in a specific gifting can speak in that area of anointing and those without speak what they do not know nor understand, they only heard about it, talk about it, but they can not show you how to operate in it. They are clouds without rain, empty vessel masquerading as truth.

In 1 Corinthian 2:9, “However, it is written: No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him. But God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.”

Finally, dream Interpretation is a spiritual gift, and if you have a dream but choose to consult someone who lacks the wisdom and integrity, it could cause chaos in your life. As many practitioners can and will manipulate its meaning for profit, worse than this are the sincerely erroneous interpretation that Christians received from their pastors who tries to move in this anointing when they don’t possess this gift from God. They will interpret wrongly and defeat the messages that God has given to the person, thereby causing the person to miss the blessings of God by their false witnessing done in good faith.

Therefore, I usually advocate consulting only matured honorable Christians who are gifted in this area and who still abide in the vine of God’s word. I pray that you will have divine messages of the night from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Joel 2:28

New International Version

The Day of the Lord

²⁸ “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams,
your young men will see visions.