 Good morning and welcome. Today we will get into what dreams and dream interpretation is all about. So let me pray and we'll begin. Heavenly Father, we thank you for giving us this time Lord to study your word. Father, we pray you will lead us and help us Lord to learn so that Lord we can apply it in our lives and Father that we can be blessed and many others can be blessed. Father God in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Alright. So when it comes to dreams we've already seen how God speaks, right? God speaks and we can pick up the information that God is communicating through our spirit senses. So there is a sense of seeing and then there's a sense of hearing and knowing and smell, taste, all that. But when it comes to the sense of seeing, there are things we can see when we are awake. Like pictures, we can see maybe some symbols or we call them open-eyed visions. So visions are more like a motion picture. Something is happening and we are seeing it. But all this is happening when we are awake. But shut-eyed visions are what our dreams meaning when we are asleep and we have seen that in Job chapter 33. The scriptures tell us from verse 14 to 18 that when one is in deep sleep, when people are slumbering on their beds verse 16 or Job 33 says then he opens the years of men and seals their instruction. So this is what God does. He seals the instruction or what he wants to say through a dream. So God gives us a dream. Job 33 verse 15. In a dream, in a vision of the night. Okay, in a dream, in a vision of the night. God seals the instruction in our spirit man. So that is what dreams are all about. Now we can ask the question, where do dreams come from? So dreams come from God because already Job 33 says that he gives the dreams. Second, dreams can come from the enemy because we know that the enemy plays with our minds. So, you know, he may give us a dream and scare us or cause, you know, some confusion to happen. So the enemy can also give us dreams. The third way that dreams can come, Ecclesiastes 5 and verse 3, it says, for a dream comes through much activity. That simply means when we are preoccupied or when our mind is busy, even then we can get a dream. So we've talked about this when we are concerned about an exam. A lot of students might have dreams of exams because that's what is going on in our minds. But is that from the Lord? Not necessarily. It's because of the busyness that we are getting that dream. So there are three sources. One is God, one is Satan and the third one is just activity, through much activity. We can have a dream. So which are the dreams that need an interpretation, the ones that are from the Lord? Okay. So most importantly, we have to identify which are the dreams from God and then interpret. So you know, we don't have to waste our time trying to interpret every dream because it may not really be from God. So the second question, what does God speak to us through a dream? It can be an instruction, like do this or do that. It can also be a correction. Maybe God wants to correct something that's happening in our lives or God could reveal something new to us. All this he would communicate and when he does this, God's intention is to protect us, to preserve us and guide us in his ways. Now, we also understand that dreams can come to saved people or those who are believers can unsaved people get a dream from the Lord? What do you think? Unbelievers. See dreams, God speaks to us through a dream. So believers can get dreams but can unbelievers have dreams? Yes. Okay, we are clear on that. So God can even speak to an unbeliever through a dream. We can't say that, oh, you're not a believer. So it can't be God. They can. In the Bible, there are a whole bunch of examples. Abimelech back in the book of Genesis had a dream. We see that Jacob had dreams. We talk about Joseph. God communicated to him through dreams. He was also a dream interpreter. There are other people. We don't necessarily, I mean, they are not the main biblical character. For example, Pharaoh's butler and baker. In the prison, they also had dreams. So there are all these other people also. They seem to be hearing from the Lord through a dream. Pharaoh had a dream. So God speaks to believer, unbeliever, all categories of people through a dream. Now, there is a whole list there. Even people like Solomon, Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel, what about the people who came to see baby Jesus, the Magi? They also had a dream. A pilot's wife had a dream that don't have anything to do with this, right? When Jesus was being killed. So these are all examples of people who had dreams. Now, dreams is one thing when we sleep, but there can also be what is known as trance. What is a trance? We talked about it actually. Please use the mic. Trance is like we are awake, but we are seeing whether eyes closed or eyes open. Yes, correct. So we are awake, but we are weak in our physical body temporarily. And what is happening is we are able to see a vision. So that is a trance. We know that Abraham, when God spoke to Abraham, he was in a trance and then God showed him many things. So this is also something that God does. So there was a trance that Abraham had. There are examples of trances, of prophets, Bala, Ezekiel, Daniel. So we would find that all these people had in the New Testament, the Book of Acts, anybody you know who had a trance, Peter. So he had that vision of the tent coming down and the animals and also that is a trance. Even Paul shares that he had experiences of trance. So it's nothing unusual. It's already there in the Bible. So it could happen. We may have a dream or we can experience a trance. Now the most important actor, not necessarily, which one? I didn't get it. If we see now the people who may take us into our trance, they'll put one ball or clock. They'll just do like this and then we'll go. Is there any act like that before what happened? I don't think God needs a clock to put us in a trance. So there isn't anything like that. It can just happen. Whenever God wants us to see something, it can just happen. It can happen anytime. These acts are like happening now also. There are people who do this as a witchcraft. They do for bad things. That's why I'm asking. That is not from the Lord. There are always two sources to the supernatural. One is the satanic world. So we must be aware of that. I know that people also practice hypnosis. Yeah, I don't have much about hypnosis. So I don't want to say too much. But my guess is that it's more on the psychological level. So that is more on the psychological level. But this is what God does. So don't go with anything that people do. If God is doing, it's fine. Okay, now is a more important part. Seeing the dream and the vision is fine. But because it is a lot of prophetic symbolism, the meaning of the dream, getting the meaning of the dream is what we are interested in. So how to understand? See, we may see certain things which are quite literal. Okay, literal meaning if you see a clock, it might be a clock only. But it could also mean, you know, your life or the seasons of your life. Do you understand? So some things are literal but some things are like symbolic. So interpretation of the dream is where we kind of struggle. Like what is the meaning of what we are seeing? So that's what we will talk about. So we have to be very careful when it comes to the interpretation. When we do the right interpretation, there is right application. But if we do the wrong interpretation, then again we are in trouble because it will lead to the wrong application. So in a dream, when we see something, okay, it can have two meanings. One is what we call a self-contained meaning or that means that like by that image or by that object itself, we know what God wants to say. Okay, but there are other symbols which we see which may have an assigned meaning which is like you have to come up with the meaning. It cannot be understood as it is. Okay, for example, if we take a pillar, an iron pillar, we see an iron pillar and I am resting on an iron pillar right. We can immediately think that it's talking about strength because it is self-contained, iron pillar and also there's a scripture like Jeremiah 118. You can look at that and we know that it is talking about strength. It's talking about like you can depend on it. There's no problem. So that's what it's talking about. But good figs, when you see figs and that too in like prophetic excuse me language, what are figs? What meaning are you going to assign to the figs? Right, so a meaning has to be assigned by looking at the figs itself. You can't tell that this means something but when you study the scriptures, we understand that figs represent Jewish captives. So in the prophecy of Jeremiah, that's what he means. So if we see figs in our dreams, it could mean that. It could mean that. So that is what we call as assigned meaning. By looking at that object itself, we can't tell what it is. But when we look at scripture, then we can find out how it was used and what is the meaning of that. Okay, did you all get it? Yeah. When we are just interpreting the dreams, like do we have to apply the same principles what we are applying for the visions also? Visions. Yeah, I think so. And the other thing is mom, like when we people normally get dreams, there will be a, I mean, some, sometimes they won't, they don't need a Bible to just interpret the dream, right? Like when we are talking, you told about unbelievers and believers. Yeah. And for dreams, there won't be a need for Bible to explain the dreams because we'll get a normal dreams also that something happened to someone and it will happen. Yeah, someone's clear cut. And someone will die in our dreams and it will reflect to some other in our relatives. Yeah. We'll know. I mean, I've been experiencing these all these things in my heart. Yes. Someone tells that I've got a dream this morning, someone died and someone will die the day or tomorrow, somehow it's happened. Yeah. So in that case, there won't be a need of Bible every time, right? In the dream. Yeah. So it may not need a lot of interpretation. It may be very straightforward that the person himself or herself can tell. That's what I'm saying. Some are literal. Literal means whatever it is, it is. There's no need for interpretation in that. But then in some other dreams or in the same dream, few things are literal, few things are symbolic. If there are symbolic elements, that is what needs our interpretation. That's how it works. Okay. So you're right. Some things can be very literal and we can identify it. So when it comes to interpreting prophetic symbolism, what are some guidelines? So it's enlisted in our notes and I'm going to take us through that. We are saying always use biblical symbolism. For example, just now we said figs. But figs we can take that image from anywhere because nowadays there are like new age practitioners, people who like occultic practices like how he said, you know, witchcraft, spiritual, so many things people are involved in. And they'll also have some symbols. If you search, you'll find symbolism. Even on Google, you'll find so many symbols are there if I had, if you had a dream and you saw this. But we have to ensure that the symbolism we are using is biblical. Don't go to any other kind of mystics or, you know, new age practitioners and you know, things like that. So stick to biblical symbolism. And sometimes the symbol may not be found or the picture may not be found in the Bible. For example, car. Okay. So if we see a car, what does it mean? Maybe it may show, it may tell us God is taking us somewhere. Okay. It's not exactly there in the Bible. But by the, by the Holy Spirit, we can get to know roughly like what it means. Okay. So sometimes that symbol won't be there in scripture, but we can depend on the Holy Spirit and also scripture to kind of come to that conclusion what it is. Then what is the other thing? While interpreting dreams, we must be clear. As I told us, a dream can be a mixture of literal and symbolic. So when we see something which is literal, we can go by it. For example, somebody is not well and we see them in our dreams. They are not well and God is healing them and they become stronger. So when we wake up, we feel like, hey, that's what God is saying. This person who is not well whom we know, God is doing something in their lives to make them well. Okay. That's literal, but symbolic. For example, I remember once, you know, one person, she was sharing a dream. She had a dream and in that dream, she saw, you know, a pastor and that pastor was saying something to her and she was actually making a decision on the basis of that and all. So then she asked me, why did I see that pastor? And, you know, we were prayerfully trying to interpret it. And the interpretation was, though she saw that pastor, it's not that pastor. It's like God's message is coming through the in authority. It's coming in authority. So that I can't literally go by that pastor's name, like, oh, I have to go to that person's church. Maybe it's not that. Maybe it's just that with authority, God is speaking to you, you do this. So then that is symbolic. You cannot take that person literally. So those are the things we have to be careful about. So in the same dream, some things will be literal and then there will be other things which are symbolic. You'll see a person. So I may see, you know, like my mother, but it may mean, it may not mean my mother. It may mean compassion. It may mean love. You understand? So that's the way we have to interpret. Right? Little symbolic. Okay, let's go on. When we are seeing a dream, we need to recognize the audience. So a God given dream has, it's trying to communicate something. Isn't it? So if it's trying to say something, who is God speaking to? Usually what we say is, depending on who we are. So let's say there's a pastor, he gets a dream. God may be saying something to the congregation. Okay? Not in every dream. Some dreams can be personal for that pastor, for his family and all, but some messages can be for the congregation. Now we may see a dream that may concern us or it may concern someone we are praying for, someone we are ministering to. So who is the audience? Is the question we have to ask? If I just get a dream, it may not be that, oh, I have to tell everybody about my dream because God may just be trying to speak to me or to just my family. So when I identify the audience also, it becomes a little more easier to interpret what we are trying to say. So yeah, when we do it dream by dream, all this will make more sense, but just broad guidelines that I'm sharing here. Next. There can be a meaning or resemblance between the audience and the symbol, like, okay, let's say in my dream, I see a diary. I see a pink diary. Now that pink diary, you know, God, the way he speaks is that maybe I had a pink diary in the past and I am able to understand what that pink diary means. Okay, but that same pink diary, another person may not get in their dream because there's no, there's no relevance. Yeah, there's no relevance. So even while interpreting dreams, when we see that, when we see things like this, we can ask that person, hey, did you have a pink diary? What did it mean to you? And then that will be helpful because there's some connection between that symbolism to the audience to whom God is speaking so that we can use that also to interpret. And sometimes certain dreams, we don't understand what it means. Then what should we do? We need to try, like use some methods to interpret it. One is to see whether you have any set symbols in the Bible. Okay, look at scripture and see. So that is one we can use. We can look at certain main characters, okay, main things in the dream. What was this? Anyway, this was like way back. I had a dream. It was so weird. It was like, I'm taken to some place and then there's a big cupboard and then you open the cupboard. It was a little bit scary also. So open the cupboard and then in the cupboard, there were all some dry bones everywhere. Something dry is there and it was not at all happy. Like when I open the cupboards, I was like, why is everything dry? Why is everything so dead? I woke up in the morning, I'm like, I don't know what it means. I just wrote it down and I left it. And then I try to think of scriptures, okay, bones, dry bones, it's representative of deadness, right? Like as a kill 37, you see that dry bones then and there were many details in the dream. So many details like actually in the beginning it was like I got kidnapped, okay. So I got kidnapped and then some people took me to a really secluded place. So there's so much going on and then I see these people and this and that and then I go to the room and then I open the cupboard. So much is happening but in dream interpretation, we should avoid getting too much into all this or this was this color that was that color, not needed. Get the main thing, get the main thing. So main thing is I'm looking at dryness stored away, okay. So I just focused on that. There are many other details to the dream. So that is another important guideline. Don't get lost. In the small little details, what are the main things in the dream? And then go ahead and try to interpret. So I felt like, yeah, that cupboard with dry bones is something and God is trying to say something. So I focused in on that and I felt like the meaning could be that there are many ideas, thoughts, you know, things that I want to do but I'm not doing it. I just left it. I just left it and now it's all dry and dead. But I need faith to be able to make, bring it out of the cupboard and step out and see God work in my life. So don't say that, you know, I can only do this and that and then keep all the other options that God has given away because of fear or, you know, some other inadequacy. So I got the meaning of the dream but I didn't get it immediately. I just wrote it down and then I started praying and then I was trying to interpret like, okay, from scripture, from some of the main elements in the dream. So I'm giving you an example. So this is helpful, right? Look, focus in on what God is showing you main things and then interpret. One more key is we need the correct meaning. We need the correct meaning. So that one element in the dream can mean two different things. For example, if we take a lion, we know that the Bible says Jesus, you know, he's a lion of Judah. He's the lion of Judah. But we see that Peter also says Satan is like a roaring lion. Then I'm seeing a lion. Is it God? Is it the devil? You know, or we take dove. We can see if you see a dove in the dream. A dove is Holy Spirit. He descended like a dove. We read that. But dove also means that, you know, there's another scripture where it says like, you should not be simple natured or like dumb, like a dove. So if I see a dove, it can be Holy Spirit, but it can also mean having a very simple attitude, not having wisdom. Got it? So then we have to see, there can be two very opposing meanings to the same symbol. How will we know whether it is this or that? Okay, ask the Holy Spirit. Yes, that we should do that. Okay. That's also helpful. So we generally say the best person who can interpret the dream is the person who saw it because it will also involve feelings. Yeah. When you saw that lion, like how did you feel? Did you feel like peace? Or did you have fear? All these things also can be considered. So ideally, it's the person who sees it, who will know actually what was going on in the dream. Okay, correct. So go by the whole dream and the entire meaning. Suppose all this is not working, then what to do? Okay, ask another person. Okay, let's imagine you asked, you asked the leaders, elders, nobody's able to interpret. Yeah. So we have a gift of the Holy Spirit. It is called as the word of wisdom, word of wisdom. So we can pray that the word of wisdom will operate in us. So you see, we're trying to use our logic. Yes. Yeah. Word of knowledge is a piece of information, but word of wisdom is solution to a problem. So then through the word of wisdom also, we can explain. So one very, again, one more strange dream, I don't know how, you know, it happened, but this was back in our school days and there was, no, maybe college days and there was a friend of mine. So I saw this person in the dream and all, and then I broke a tooth. That was a dream. Can you imagine like what in the world are you going to interpret on this? I don't know how I broke, but the end of the dream was something related to that friend, but my tooth broke. Yeah. My tooth broke. So then I'm thinking like, what Lord, what is this? What is this? But the meaning of the dream was that I, you know, like that person will go on their own way. And though we are all close friends, like the season of life is changing, my friends are going to be different. That was the meaning. That was the meaning. So the tooth breaking is like not continuing in that friendship anymore. Right? But then how do you, like, what do you look at for symbolism and scripture and all to interpret? But finally, I got the meaning and that's very true because you know that those were college days, right? Like we were all close friends a whole bunch of us, but everyone went their own different directions and they have their own lives and have hardly kept in touch. In fact, not just that one friend, many friends, but that was the meaning. It came much later, not through assigning the symbols and all, but it just came in my spirit that, okay, God is trying to say that friendship went. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. As we are praying, like Holy Spirit just puts it in your spirit. Yeah. Every dream is from God? No. Okay. Yeah. If there is a no means, what's the alternative one? So we mentioned that when we started today that some are from God, some are because we are thinking about some matters. Yeah. And my question is like, is it, is it, I mean, any dream that comes from Satan? Yes, it can come from Satan also. Because for unbelievers, they also get dreams, right? Yeah. Yeah. It won't be everything from God, right? That's true. Yeah, I can come from Satan also. Yeah. And then one more doubt, how to remember the dreams? Yeah, how to remember the dreams? I think good way to do is to write it down. No, like, yeah. We use our phone for everything. No, ma'am. We can't use a phone to write the dream. We will start from 1 o'clock to 5 or 6 o'clock. We will be travelling in that movie only. And then just if we wake up in one minute, we will forget everything. Yeah, it's true. In that dream, I used to think that I had to. Yeah. That's true. So, actually, if you look at, you know, study, sleep and dreams and like eye movement, REM, sleep and all, we are supposed to be having hundreds of dreams in a night. So, we actually see so many dreams every night. Only thing, we don't remember them. We don't remember them. But when some dreams stand out to us and we feel like God said something and we forget it, what I do is I just pray, Lord, I forgot. Just remind me what exactly happened in that dream. See, at least one or two key points if you remember a meaning you can identify. So, just pray and ask God to give you like that thing back. Thing like, you know, I write sermons in dreams mum. Like, I mean, it's not literally, but the thing is, I used to say sermons and you know, I don't even know how that another second point will come, third point will come. And I prayed a lot of times to just remember, but I won't, I can't remember the things what I've done. But in the dreams, the flow is so good. I like, I'll be thinking of myself. I'm preaching. So, what is the meaning? Then you tell us, you interpret your own dream and tell us. No, the thing is, what I'm thinking is, see, I wanted to remember the dream and I wanted to remember the points. Once I tried to do, I wrote two points, what I've done, but I couldn't do that once again. So, what sermon you wrote, you're trying to retrieve. Okay, got it, got it. But see, Anand, that's what I'm saying. It can just be a basic communication that God is going to use you in that area, right? But to get the content of the sermon from the dream may not be the thing that you get that from Bible college. So that God is not giving you those points in the dream. Like how it can, it can happen. It can happen. So you could actually, I mean, God can work anyway, right? So you can get a whole message also. You can preach it also. That can happen. Yeah. So it might just mean that, Anand, that in this area you should work hard and God will use you. So, good thing is like you just, in the phone, you know, notes or some Google Drive, you can just write down some details. If not the whole thing, at least write down the key things that you saw. Okay, I saw this, this person, this, this, this, and if a small interpretation, I feel this is what God is saying. Then, yeah. Okay. Now, symbols in the Bible, there are divine symbols, there are materials, gestures, actions, numbers. So all this is to help us when we see certain images, names, characters, colors. So the whole list is here. We won't go through everything. So divine symbols, you know, when we see sword from scripture, it's like a break in fellowship or it can mean judgment, burning bush. When, if we see a burning bush, Moses experience God's presence. So it will mean presence of God. And, you know, similarly, water, river, holy spirit. Okay. If we see a mantle come on us or something covering us, anointing, right. So this is the manner in which we could identify divine symbols. Some materials that we see, for example, we said good figs. Good figs are Jewish captives in Babylon. If you see a tree, you see a tree and the tree is so prosperous, there is a river next to the tree and all, it's a person. Tree is a picture of a person. God is saying, okay, this person is blessed. They are fruitful. So when I see a tree, maybe God is speaking about a person. If it's a dry tree, not fruitful, then we can understand what exactly it means. So, yeah. So images like that, some of these materials or if we see, what else? Yeah, dry bones. Dry bones is something that is dead and relating to any restorative work that God is going to do. If we see stars, stars, stars in the book of Revelation have to do with pastors or leaders of the church. There are, you know, those stars. So like that, you use the symbol and then material and be able to describe it. So, okay, I won't go through everything. You can look at it. Which one? Yeah, sinful Israel. It comes from that passage. In that passage, there'll be a description. Yeah. And like for the meaning, it was given like judgment coming in a break of fellowship between man and God. But we also see in scripture for this word as word of God, right? So how we can take it? We can't, like if we see it, dream of God. How I can know it is like God was telling me to read the word of God or it's like telling the judgment coming in. So that's why I'm saying we need a few more elements in that dream. Then when we link all those elements, we will be able to see the context. No, no, no, no. It doesn't. But most, this is like common, common meaning. Yeah. So other gestures are there, symbolic gestures, like if somebody is laying hands on someone. That means like, you know, you're seeing someone, man of God, blessing you, woman of God blessing you. So that is like imparting something. Some blessing is coming or we are shaking hands with someone. It's like fellowship. A new fellowship has started, a new partnership has started. So yeah, like those kind of things. So you can use these tables for your reference also. See, things like numbers, some numbers like seven is the number of perfection. Eight, I think is a number of new beginnings. So if you see a number in the dream and you can interpret it accordingly, 40 is testing, testing Moses 40 years, Israel 40 years in the wilderness and Jesus 40 days of temptation. So it means testing. Sometimes we can see names of people. Maybe I see the name of Abraham. What does it mean? It could mean faith. Got it. So based on the name, you can interpret colors. We may see the color purple. Purple is royalty, blue is heaven, red is, it could be sin also. It could be blood of Jesus also. So like that, white is purity, holiness. And then, you know, pastor shed one of his dreams towards the end. This you've heard about this dream, right? Like he sees different snakes. He sees, okay, in a just what he saw was he saw like one type of snake, small snakes. So he knew he can just jump over them and he escaped. Then again, he saw one more bigger snake and he threw something at it, distracted it and he escaped. But finally he was standing in a place where there was something like a big anaconda, like, you know, it swallows you up, right? And then he was like, okay, now what do I do? And in that moment, he suddenly saw a chicken. You know how they hold chicken by the feet, like you have a bunch of chicken. So he saw chicken like that and he knew that the answer to escape is just distract that big snake. So he took the chicken and he threw at the snake and the snake got distracted. Instead of following him, it went after the chicken and swallowed and he escaped from that place. So then he was asking God, what is the meaning Lord? What does it mean? So basically the meaning was strategies. You see, for every situation, there's a different strategy that God gave him to come out of the situation. And then later on, God gives him a scripture also where it talks about the best strategy of God is the cross. The cross is the wisdom of God and how God has overcome the works of Satan through the wisdom of the cross. So that is like the ultimate strategy. So that is the interpretation of the dream. So can you imagine? Like you're seeing, what is this snake, chicken? What is God trying to tell me? But that's what God was trying to say. So these are the ways in which we interpret dreams. So with that, we close dream interpretation. The remaining chapters, I will just do one or two quick recordings. Most of these things are familiar. So we've already discussed a lot of this in our earlier classes. Next week onwards, we will start the apostolic. So can we close with the word of prayer? One of you, can you please pray? Lord Jesus, we thank you for this time, Father. We thank you that you have given us good insights and taught us on new things this day. Lord, as what we have learned, Lord Father Jesus, we ask for the wisdom of your spirit, Lord Father, to keep, to use it in a right way, Lord Father, to interpret our dreams, Lord Father, help us, Lord Father, to use everything that we have taught, Lord Father. And Jesus, we pray that whatever we have learned, Lord Father, it will come in handy one day, Lord Father, to help us, Lord Father, and to use it for your kingdom, Lord Father. We thank you for everything in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you so much. God bless.