In the ancient Near East, dreams were one of several ways people sought to see the future and to make decisions that would be beneficial to them. In some societies, people went to temples or holy places to sleep in order to have a dream that would show them the best decision to make. ¹. Dreams are important and part of the fabric of life on planet earth. What can we learn about them and how they impact our being.

Acts 2:17 (KJV)
17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:

ILLUSTRATION: Abraham Lincoln’s Dream
Abraham Lincoln just weeks before his death, dreamed and saw himself walking around in the White House.  He saw people weeping.  He saw an honor guard surrounding his casket.  In his dream he walked over to some of the mourners and asked them, “Why do you weep?”  They replied, “Don’t you know the President is dead?”  He walked over and saw himself in the casket.

•  The entire gamut of human existence is covered by dreams and visions – young to old.
• Somewhere on planet earth today, someone is dreaming.
• Somewhere on planet earth today, someone is seeing visions from God.
• Dreams and visions are one of the ways that God communicates with man.
• God, the Creator and Designer of man created in man the mechanism of dreaming.
• Sometimes God will use this method to try and direct a persons’ life.
• Here is an important safeguard for your life.
  • If you awake from a dream, and don’t know that it was from the Lord, forget about it, it wasn’t.
  • If you have to ask go around and ask other people what the dream means, forget about it. It wasn’t from God.
  • God is an expert communicator. He is not going to send you on a wild goose chase.
• President Lincoln did not acknowledge what the Lord was trying to communicate to him.  It is a known fact that lack of protection was what was responsible for his death.

Dream Facts

• Humans spend one third of their life sleeping.
  • Just as a personal side note. Since we spend so much of our lives lying on one single piece of furniture, we should make that piece of furniture high quality. Investing in a high quality mattress and box spring is wisdom.
• God is not going to be shut out of one-third of your life. He will communicate to you at times during this part of your life.
• God’s consistent action has always been to find a way to interact with the man He created.
• So, He designed the medium of dreaming to communicate with you, at times, during this one-third portion of your life.
• God wants in on every part of your life.
• All operations of God are by faith, including dreams and visions
• So, believing in dreams and visions aids the process.
• Nothing in the realms of God are automatic.
• Things won’t happen properly just because they are in the Bible.
• You don’t go seeking them but you set your heart in this way. You be open to anyway that the Lord wants to communicate with your life.
• Our mindset and our conversation with heaven then should be something like this, ‘Lord if you want to communicate with me this way, it’s okay with me. Lord anyway that you wish to speak – any channel you choose – its okay with me.’

Dream Facts Plus

• Dreams are always black and white – you never dream in color.
• Laws of nature are suspended when you dream.
• You can fly in your dreams.
• You can be instantly transported from one place to another in your dreams.
• You lose the sense of time in your dreams.
• You can do seemingly impossible things in your dreams.
• In some aspects, I think this characteristic of dreaming has something to do with what heaven will be like. Not that heaven is a dream world but that there is no time and no natural laws exist.

Different Types of Dreams

• There are different types of dreams
• There are fantasy dreams

ILLUSTRATION:  Husbands for a Dollar Fantasy Dream
I once heard of a woman who woke her husband in the middle of the night, and said, “Henry, wake up. I just had this terrible nightmare. I dreamed I was at an auction for husbands. One husband brought $10,000 and others sold for sums in the millions.” That’s all it took to get him awake. He asked, “Well, Honey, what were husbands like me bringing?”  She said, “That’s what was so disgusting. They were taking ones like you, tying them in a bundle, and selling them for a dollar a bunch.”

• There are memory dreams.
• There are bad dreams.
  • Bad dreams are from the enemy.
  • God is not going to give you a lustful dream or fearful scary dream.
  • The enemy invaded the Garden of Eden that God made for His man. He has been trying to invade the other realms of God ever since.
  • Take authority over sleep and your room and you shouldn’t have any trouble here.
  • You should not be afraid to sleep.
  • Do not lie down in fear.

Proverbs 3:24 (KJV)
When you lie down, you will not be afraid; When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.

• You should look forward to sleep.
• There are prophetic dreams.
  • Prophetic dreams are dreams where you are shown a picture of tomorrow.
  • This is where Abraham Lincoln missed it.
  • Prophetic dreams must be acted on.
  • The Lord speaks to Sharon in these types of dreams.
  • You should pray not just act like you saw something or know something.
  • God does not show you things just so that you can be deemed wise by others.
  • He shows you things in order that something may be done about that situation.

Isaiah 38:1-6 (KJV)
1 In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’ ” 2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, 3 and said, “Remember now, O LORD, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. 4 Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying, 5 “Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of your father David, “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. 6 “I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city.”‘

• Can you see the reason why God communicated with Isaiah in the first place?  Can you see why the Lord told him that he was going to die?

ILLUSTRATION: Dream of Finding a Lost Son
A Quaker family lived in Pennsylvania. Against the father’s wishes, the son Jonathan ran off and enlisted in the cause of the North during the Civil War. Time passed and no word from Jonathan. One night the father had a dream that his son had been wounded in action, was in distress, and needed the care of a father. So the father left the farm, and discovered where the troops might be. He made his way by horse-drawn buggy until he came to the scene of action. He inquired until he found the commander and asked about his son. The commander replied that there had been heavy action earlier in the day and many had fallen wounded. Some had been cared for, but others were still left out in the trenches. But he gave permission to the father to go and try to find his son. He told him where the action had taken place. It was now about dark, so the father lit a lantern, and the light fell across wounded young men, some calling for help, many too seriously wounded to cry for assistance. The task seem impossible. How could he find his son among all those wounded and dying? He devised a little plan, methodically he would comb the scene of action with his lantern. But that wasn’t fruitful. As he stumbled over body after body he almost despaired. Then he began calling loudly, “Jonathan Smythe, thy father seeketh after thee.” Then he would walk a little ways and call again, ‘Jonathan Smythe, thy father seeketh after thee.”
A groan could be heard here and there. “I wish that were my father.” He kept diligently at his search. Then he heard a very faint, barely audible reply, “Father, over here.” And then, “I knew you would come.” The father knelt down and took him in his arms, comforting him with his presence. He dressed the wound, carried him to the buggy, took him to a place of seclusion and nursed him back to health.

• Many of the false religions of the world came about by the founder having a counterfeit dream or vision.
• The religion of the Babylonians and the Egyptians were based on someone’s dreams and visions.
• Buddhism
  • Buddha was contemporary with Zechariah and Malachi for 31 years.
  • Buddha’s, whose real name is Siddhartha Gautama, received a vision or enlightenment while sitting under a bo tree by a river bank.
• Islam
  • Islam began with the mystic visions of a camel driver named Ubu’l-Kassim later known as Mohammed.  According to Islamic tradition, at 40 years of age he entered a cave and was confronted by a being who identified himself as the angel Gabriel.  The angel began to choke him into submission saying ‘Proclaim, the Lord the Creator who created man from a clot of blood.’
• Mormonism
  • This religion is said to have started with a vision to Joseph Smith as he was praying in the woods.  Smith said that God the Father and God the Son materialized to him.
• Unification Church
  • Said to have started with a vision of Jesus Christ to Sun Myung Moon in which he was told to finish the work that Christ began.  His followers believed him to be the 2nd coming of Jesus.
• Did these people have these dreams?
• Maybe yes and maybe they made it up.
• We can say based on this scripture:

2 Cor. 11:14 (KJV)
No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

• What we can definitely say is this – where there is a counterfeit there must be a real!

Dreams and Faith in God

• The main difference between dreams and visions is that dreams are a night phenomenon and visions are an ‘awake’ phenomenon.
• Faith for sleep.
• The majority of our believing God has to do with our awake activities.
• God designed a 24 hour day in which one-third of it you spend sleeping.
• I say eight hours of sleep but everybody knows what the average amount of sleep should be. Just ask a person when they wake up. The answer is always one hour more.
• If it takes faith to live during our ‘awake’ hours of the day, that is sixteen hours, do you think it also takes faith, believing, trusting in God to sleep? Does it take faith to function the last eight hours of that 24 hour cycle?
• How are we going to tell if our faith needs to be active during the sleep phase of our life?
• By understanding how faith comes, faith comes for our ‘awake’ time activities how?
• By hearing and hearing the word of God.

Romans 10:17 (KJV)
17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

• We believe God for finances, for family members salvation, for healing, for traveling mercies, during our awake time.
• For each of these items, we know that we can have faith for them because we have scripture for them.
• Faith comes by hearing. You cannot have faith without the Word.
•  There has to be Bible verses for finances; Bible verses for healing; Bible verses for protection.
• We know that it’s the will of God because we have Bible verses for these things.
• We have Bible verses for our 16 hour portion of the day.
• Here is the million dollar question. Do we have Bible verses for the sleep part of our lives? Do we have Bible verses for the last eight hour part of our twenty-four hour day like we have them for the first sixteen?
• If we do, and if we know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, then we must be able to have faith for sleep.
• If you do a word search in the original language on sleep, you come up with 135 verses!

Sleep Facts and the Bible

• God is in the knockout business
• The Lord can give you sleep

Genesis 2:21 (KJV)
21 So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place.

• This is the most unique way you have ever seen of getting a spouse.
• Check yourself in the morning. If the Lord has given you a deep sleep, see if you’re missing any parts 🙂

1 Samuel 26:11-12 (KJV)
21 “The LORD forbid that I should stretch out my hand against the LORD’S anointed; but now please take the spear that is at his head and the jug of water, and let us go.” 12So David took the spear and the jug of water from beside Saul’s head, and they went away, but no one saw or knew it, nor did any awake, for they were all asleep, because a sound sleep from the LORD had fallen on them.

Psalm 127:2 (KJV)
It is vain for you to rise up early, To retire late, To eat the bread of painful labors; For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.

• If you can’t sleep, do not count sheep – talk to the shepherd.
• Obeying God in the daytime helps you sleep at night
• It is hard to believe God for sleep at night if you are disobedient during the day.

Psalm 4:8  (KJV)
In peace I will both lie down and sleep, For You alone, O LORD, make me to dwell in safety.
You can’t lie down and sleep if you are not at peace.

Romans 5:1 (KJV)
1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

• If your conscience is bothering you and you are trying to override it – you’re trying to push it off – it is going to mess with your believing for sleep.
• It takes more than a soft pillow to insure sound sleep.
• It takes a good conscience.
• Peace comes by justification – it comes by knowing that you are right with God.

Sleep Robbers

• Warning: Disobedience in these two areas will definitely cause sleepless nights

1 Peter 5:7 (KJV)
7 casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.

Eph. 4:26 (KJV)
26 BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger,

• The Lord Protects the Sleep of the Righteous
• He will look out for this area of your life.

Exodus 22:25-27 (KJV)
25 “If you lend money to My people, to the poor among you, you are not to act as a creditor to him; you shall not charge him interest. 26 “If you ever take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge, you are to return it to him before the sun sets, 27 for that is his only covering; it is his cloak for his body. What else shall he sleep in? And it shall come about that when he cries out to Me, I will hear him, for I am gracious.

• Here is a general rule – don’t cause people sleepless nights – the Lord watches that.
• Sweet sleep comes to fearless people

Proverbs 3:24 (KJV)
24 When you lie down, you will not be afraid; When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.

• Refuse to fear – do not lay down afraid
• Deal with the fear before you close your eyes
• God does not sleep – there is no sense in you being afraid.

Psalm 121:4 (KJV)
Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord will sustain you in sleep

Psalm 3:5 (KJV)
I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the LORD sustains me.

• You do not have to lie down and wonder if your going to wake up
• You do not have to fear or dread bad dreams.
• The Lord will sustain you!

Sleep Positions

• Scientists believe the position in which a person goes to sleep provides an important clue about the kind of person they are.
• Professor Chris Idzikowski, director of the Sleep Assessment and Advisory Service, has analyzed six common sleeping positions – and found that each is linked to a particular personality type.
• The Foetus: Those who curl up in the foetus position are described as tough on the outside but sensitive at heart. They may be shy when they first meet somebody, but soon relax.
• This is the most common sleeping position, adopted by 41% of the 1,000 people who took part in the survey. More than twice as many women as men tend to adopt this position.
  • Log (15%): Lying on your side with both arms down by your side. These sleepers are easy going, social people who like being part of the in-crowd, and who are trusting of strangers. However, they may be gullible.
  • The Yearner (13%): People who sleep on their side with both arms out in front are said to have an open nature, but can be suspicious, cynical. They are slow to make up their minds, but once they have taken a decision, they are unlikely ever to change it.
  • Soldier (8%): Lying on your back with both arms pinned to your sides. People who sleep in this position are generally quiet and reserved. They don’t like a fuss, but set themselves and others high standards.
  • Freefall (7%): Lying on your front with your hands around the pillow, and your head turned to one side. Often gregarious and brash people, but can be nervy and thin-skinned underneath, and don’t like criticism, or extreme situations.
  • Starfish (5%): Lying on your back with both arms up around the pillow. These sleepers make good friends because they are always ready to listen to others, and offer help when needed. They generally don’t like to be the centre of attention.
• Here is a simpler one for you.
• Sleep positions for those who are in Christ.
  • The king sleeps on his back.
  • The wise man sleeps on his side.
  • The rich man sleeps on his stomach.
• What are you saying? It does not matter how you sleep if you’re in Christ, you have got it made.

Sleeping Metaphors

• Perhaps no metaphor has been used to poke fun at preachers more than the metaphor of sleeping. Some samples:
• Samson slew a thousand in a night with the jawbone of an ass. Our guest preacher has just put 1000 to sleep with the same implement.
• Now I sit me down to sleep,
  The speaker’s dull, the subject’s deep.
  If he should stop before I wake,
  Give me a poke for goodness sake.
• Richard Cardinal Cushing writes about the kind of people who could start a revolution if only they would return God’s call:
  • If all the sleeping folks will wake up,
  • and all the lukewarm folks will fire up,
  • and all the dishonest folks will confess up,
  • and all the disgruntled folks will sweeten up,
  • and all the discouraged folks will cheer up,
  • and all the depressed folks will look up,
  • and all the estranged folks will make up,
  • and all the gossipers will shut up,
  • and all the dry bones will shake up,
  • and all the true soldiers will stand up,
  • and all the church members will pray up –
  • and the Savior for all is lifted up –
  • then…
• You can have the world’s greatest renewal.

Call to Action:

It is God’s plan for His children to recuperate in the night seasons. His desire is that your rest be sweet and satisfying. But you have to believe Him and trust Him for it just like you do any other part of your life.

Question: How has the Lord helped you in this area of sleeping restfully? Please share that in the comments section below.