THOUGHTS FOR CONSIDERATION:
Greetings again my Brethren. In the Old Testament Book of Joel he writes, “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:” (Joel 2:28) Now, I nor anyone else know what time Joel is taking about. You can plug and play this verse into about any horrible time in history. Sadly, many of the so called end-time prophets say Joel is talking about the last days, but the disciples thought they were living in the last days thinking Jesus would come back in their life time. When it is all said and done it matters not when Christ returns, we just need to be ready. We should live our lives as He will come at any second and we will never be wrong. But, this verse talks about visions what we discussed last month and dreams our subject for this month. Dreams has always been one of the main ways God has communicated with man. The Old Testament is full stories, but did you know the New Testament is full of dreams? In Matthew we find where an Angel (next month’s topic) spoke to Joseph (Jesus’ earthly step father) about Mary (Jesus’ mother). “But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.” (Matthew 1:20) Even the birth of Christ Jesus, Himself was communicated to man through a dream. Dreams are often used to warn people of danger or the dangers of getting off track with God. Here in Matthew 2:12 we see where the “Three Wise Men” were warned of God in a dream not to return to Herod because Herod was an evil man and wanted to do them harm. Matthew reads, “And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way. 13 And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.” (Matthew 2:12-13) There probably was more than three wise men, but we say three because of the three gifts given to baby Jesus, the gold frankincense, and myrrh. In those days the more men in a caravan the safer the caravan was. Servants and slaves did all of the heavy lifting caring for the camels and equipment so I feel sure it was a large party of people. In verse 13 we see where the angel of the LORD appeared to Joseph, again by
way of a warning to take his young family to Egypt. Again, in Matthew 2:22 the angel of the LORD spoke to Joseph a third time, “But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judaea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither: notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee:” (Matthew 2:22) This time was a for-telling (prophesy) for Joseph and his young family to return back to Israel so prophecy can be fulfilled. Verse 23 reads, “And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.” All along Jesus’ early child hood God used dreams to keep the promised Messiah (Jesus) alive until it was time to die. Knowing God is not a respecter of persons He too will give us dreams. I am sure if I ask have you ever had a dream from God many would answer yes and some would answer no. Dreams from God does not make us more spiritual than others or make us more important to God than others. They are just a means to communicate a certain concern, truth, or need to man in a way they will know it is from God and not themselves. In my life I can remember three dreams God gave me. Now most dreams we have at night are from the cares of the day, but a dream from God you will know it is a dream from God, because it will haunt you, it is of the Spirit of God and it will vex your spirit letting you know something is moving in the spiritual realm. Remember, things happen in the Spirit before they happen in the physical realm. One dream I can tell you about was about a good friend, Florian, a Romanian who helped open up Romania to me. Florian was a member of the Chapel at Robinson Barracks in Germany when I was the Pastor, but Florian also was a rascal. Florian had five passports and travelled from country to country doing things that God would not be in favour of, if you know what I mean. Well, one night I had a dream Florian was laying by the side of the road with all of these large rocks on him and I looked at him, thinking he was dead, and he rolled his head towards me and said, “oh Brother!” I knew without a shadow of doubt this dream was from God to warn Florian. So, I told him of the dream. He told me he was going to go and make a big haul and then maybe return to Romanian. I told him there is danger for your life ahead. Well, for about four months Florian disappeared. Then one day when the LORD said not to go to work I heard a knock on the door and it was Florian and the first words he said was, “oh Brother.” The story he told us where he had to hang (and yes he had rope burns around his neck) himself with a sheet to escape, naked was amazing. Dreams from God are real. The challenge is to know which ones are from God.
Next month we will continue looking at more divine ways of diverse Godly communication. He is speaking to us, but do we have the hearing ears to hear what the LORD is saying to us? Written by David Stahl
