 God may be trying to speak to you through dreams and visions, and I don't want you to miss it. If you've noticed as of late, it seems that spiritual activity has become more intense. There's something that has shifted in recent years and there is more spiritual activity upon the earth today than there ever has been that I truly believe. Something is happening in the heavenly realm. Something is happening in the church. And so we as the people of God must not be ignorant concerning the supernatural manifestations of the Holy Spirit's power. If you want God to speak to you in every way that he does and lift your hands right now and say open my eyes and you watching live right now or on replay write those simple words in the comments section. Open my eyes. Let that be a public declaration, a prayer of faith because we truly must have our eyes open if we are to participate in everything that God wants us to participate in. It's time that God's people begin hearing God through supernatural means. Now there are four ways the Holy Spirit speaks. I'll give this to you real briefly and then I'm going to talk and focus on dreams and visions. Number one, we start with the word. The word is the first, the primary and the most effective, most accurate way that the Holy Spirit will speak to you. If it's not in his word, the Holy Spirit will not, I should say it this way, the Holy Spirit will never speak in a way that contradicts the word of God. He will not speak in a way to you through a dream, through a vision, through another person, through a supernatural demonstration. He will not speak in a way that contradicts his word. So first you have the word and the word is the foundation that is laid that allows us to build the rest of our relationship with the Lord. If you've ever talked to someone who believes that God no longer directly speaks to his people, they'll ask you rhetorically and even dramatically is the word of God not sufficient? Is the word of God not complete? Is the Bible not enough? To that we say, we believe the word of God is sufficient. And it is precisely because the word is sufficient that we are positioned as God's people to hear him speak directly to us. So that word counts as the foundation. The word is the first way, the most accurate way, and we must become familiar with the word first. If you're looking for God to speak to you, open your Bible. If you're looking to hear from the Holy Spirit, open your Bible. If you want God to guide your life through some message, open your Bible. The more familiar you become with the written word, the more easy it becomes to hear the spoken word to your heart. So that's number one, it's his word. And his word is the primary source by which we receive instruction from him. Number two is wisdom. Wisdom is the nature of the spirit in you. Wisdom is founded upon the word. The more you know his word, the more you walk in wisdom and wisdom will guide your life. Wisdom is how we hear him for the day to day instructions. Wisdom is how we hear him for how we handle parenting and marriage and business and life. Wisdom is how we hear him concerning where we should work, where we should go to school, where we should live. Wisdom will speak, wisdom will guide, and wisdom will purposefully pull you in alignment with God's will. So number one is the word. Number two is wisdom. Wisdom is the second most accurate way by which God speaks to you. And then number three, there is the whisper. Now the whisper is what the Holy Spirit speaks directly to you. I remember one time I was pulling up to a stop sign and I stopped and I was just about to go right through that intersection when the Holy Spirit said, don't go. Stop and wait. Well, somebody without their headlights on, it was nighttime, blew right through the stop sign. They would have crashed into me. I don't know if I would have been killed, but I would have been seriously injured judging by their speed. Now you tell that to someone who doesn't believe God speaks and then ask them, where would that be in scripture? Where is that in chapter and verse? And does the Holy Spirit not speak these warnings to us? You may have heard it said, if it's in God's word, the Holy Spirit doesn't need to say it. If it's not in God's word, the Holy Spirit wouldn't say it. Well, that fails to take into account the relational aspect of the voice of the Holy Spirit. That fails to take into account the personal aspect of the voice of the Holy Spirit, those daily warnings, that guidance he gives us from day to day. Have you ever felt convicted for a sin? Raise your hand if you have. Why would he need to do that if it's in his word? Because it's personal. If anyone's ever felt convicted over a sin, it's because the Holy Spirit is speaking directly to you. Well, wasn't that already in his word? Yes, why did he need to say it because he made it personal? So that whisper that we hear to our hearts, though it's not as accurate as the word, is still necessary for daily living. But here's the problem. Many believers try to live by the whisper instead of the word, and they end up in confusion. They reverse it. They build on the whisper first. Well, I just feel this. I just think that all the while contradicting the Bible with their lives, with their beliefs, and because they're so convinced that the whisper is their only source of hearing God, they'll actually begin to mold the Scripture to what they believe rather than what they believe according to the Scripture. Finally, number four, and then we'll move on, and this is what I'm covering tonight. Number four is wonders. So number one, the word. Number two, wisdom. Number three, the whisper. Number four is wonders, and they lose accuracy as you go down the line. Wonders is like a sign, a miracle, a vision, or a dream, which is what we're talking about. I'm gonna talk to you about the purpose of dreams and visions, how you can tell your vision or dream is from God. We will look at how much emphasis we should put in our visions and dreams, and biblically speaking, when our visions and dreams most likely to manifest. I can't teach you how to have visions and dreams, nobody can, because we can't force God to speak. So if anyone ever tells you, hey, come take my hand, I can take you to heaven, I think they'd rather take you to the bank there. Okay, so that's not something, maybe they're sincere, maybe they mean well, but that's not biblical. I can't teach you how to see visions. I can't teach you how to have dreams. All I can teach you is how to position yourself in a way to where the Holy Spirit is trying to speak to you in these ways, your flesh is not blocking that. Because sin and disobedience don't keep God from speaking, they keep us from hearing. And then I'm gonna briefly talk about some of the common dreams that believers actually have quite often, and we're gonna go through and try to interpret some of the meaning here. And maybe if we have time, we're gonna open it up for questions, but not before I pray and ask the Lord to impart something in us today that would make us more susceptible, again, can't be taught, make us more susceptible and available to his voice in this way. Okay, so first we look at the biblical basis for visions and dreams. We see both mentioned here in Acts chapter two, verses 17 and 18. Acts chapter two, verses 17 and 18 say, in the last days, God says, I will pour out my spirit upon all people, your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. In those days, I will pour out my spirit even on my servants, men and women alike, and they will prophesy. We can get into a lot right there, but the Bible very clearly here says, men and women alike, and they will prophesy. So there we see the scripture very clearly telling us that in these latter days, and I believe this is talking about the period of the church, the church age, which we're in, these latter days, we will see these dreams and visions. Now, the Bible also talks more specifically just about visions. If you see in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, go there now, 2 Corinthians 12. I'm gonna read verses one through four. This boasting will do no good, but I must go on. I will reluctantly tell about visions and revelations from the Lord. Now nobody's stopping Paul the apostle here and saying, well, that just sounds too weird, Paul. And nowhere in scripture does it say that God has ever stopped speaking in this manner. He writes, I was caught up to the third heaven 14 years ago. Third heaven, why does he say third? The Bible says in the beginning God created the heavens, plural and the earth. There's the earth, sky, the firmament, which is the first heaven. There's the cosmos, which is the second heaven. And then there's God's dwelling place, which is the third heaven. And that's what Paul's talking about when he writes of being caught up in to the third heaven. Only God knows, he says, yes, only God knows whether I was in my body or outside my body. But I do know that I was caught up to paradise and heard things so astounding that they cannot be expressed in words. Things no human is allowed to tell. So there we see a biblical reference to visions, a New Testament biblical reference to visions. And then we see an Old Testament reference here in Job 33, verses 14 and 15. For God speaks again and again though people do not realize it. He speaks in dreams, in visions of the night. When deep sleep falls on people as they lie in their beds. What's the difference between a dream and a vision? It's not super deep. It's very simple. The difference between a dream and a vision is whether or not you're awake. If you're asleep, it's a dream. If you're awake, it's a vision. Now visions, I think sometimes we imagine that visions are hyper realistic. That would be an intense vision to where you almost like a virtual reality experience where we're caught up, we're looking around, we see, we touch, we feel and we're really literally figured physically there, I should say. Well, that can be the case, but many times a vision actually is similar to a daydream. Now, not everything you daydream about, like you winning arguments from three weeks ago, not everything you daydream about is a vision. But visions do sometimes come across like a vision. Visions do have that daydream like feel or effect. Imagine, for example, those times that you've had a daydream, you notice that you kind of become just unaware of everything in front of you and you just retreat almost into your mind and you're seeing a picture and then when you come out of it, you're back in reality or how many of you have ever been driving thinking about something and then realize, wait a minute, how did I get here? You went into autopilot driving. Okay, that is similar to a vision. It's like a daydream almost. And again, the difference simply being whether you're awake or asleep. Now, I've noticed some similarity between dreams and visions in that they're both effortless. You can't force yourself to daydream. You can't force yourself to dream. There are things you can do maybe to cause dreams to be more common in your life, but there's not necessarily anything that you can do to force a dream upon yourself. It's just you kind of go into this surrendered place and I'm not talking about new ageism and emptying your mind. Remember the difference between worldly and godly meditation. Worldly meditation says empty your mind. Why? Because that leaves influence for other spirits but not emptying your mind, filling your mind. That's godly meditation. See Psalm chapter one versus one through three on that. So what is the purpose of dreams and visions? Number one, God can impart through dreams. I'm gonna show you something in the scripture that is just astounding. But first take for example, the fact that angels biblically speaking would appear in dreams. And they were actual angels communicating actual truth. And I thought that was interesting that angelic beings, it doesn't say, notice the Bible doesn't say that they dreamt about an angel. It says that the angels appeared to them in a dream, meaning angels in the supernatural realm have this ability to actually go into the dream and that is astounding. But we're gonna look at something here that is even more astounding in my opinion. Go to first Kings chapter three. We're gonna read a very large portion of scripture or relatively large portion of scripture, at least large for a setting like this. But I'm gonna read first Kings three versus five through 15. First Kings three, five through 15. And this is on my point about how God can impart the dreams. We're talking now about the purpose of dreams and visions. That night the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream and God said, what do you want? Ask and I will give it to you. Solomon replied, you showed great and faithful love to your servant, my father, David because he was honest and true and faithful to you. And you have continued to show this great and faithful love to him the day by giving him a son to sit on his throne. Now, oh Lord, my God, you have made me king instead of my father, David but I am like a little child who doesn't know his way around. And here I am in the midst of your chosen people, your own chosen people, a nation so great and numerous that cannot be counted. Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong for who by himself is able to govern this great people of yours. Very popular scripture, the Bible says verse 10 of first Kings three. The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for wisdom. So God replied, because you have asked for wisdom in governing my people with justice and have not asked for a long life or wealth or the death of your enemies, I will give you what you asked for. I will give you a wise and understanding heart such as no one else has ever had or ever will have. And I will also give you what you did not ask for riches and fame. No other king in all the world will be compared to you for the rest of your life. And if you follow me and obey my decrees and my commands as your father David did, I'll give you a long life. Then Solomon, watch this now, verse 15. Then Solomon woke up and realized it had been a dream. He returned to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the Lord's covenant where he sacrificed burnt offerings and peace offerings. Then he invited all his officials to a great banquet. Now this is amazing because this is an encounter with God that Solomon is actually having with God. He's not dreaming about an encounter. God is visiting him within his dream. And there's proof of this in first Kings chapter five, verse 12. So the Lord gave wisdom to Solomon just as he had promised. Wait a minute. I thought that was a dream. But he actually had an encounter with God in his dream. You ever had a dream about an encounter in the presence of God? And then you wake up and you sense his presence in your room. God visited you in your dream. God's presence is everywhere, including within that state, whatever you wanna call it if an actual place are not in your dream. And so we see that in the life of Solomon, he received impartation, actual spiritual impartation through his dream. Now I had a dream a few years ago. And in my dream I was being taken to the ministry headquarters of Catherine Coleman. And I'm not saying I spoke with Catherine Coleman. So nobody online clipped this out and say, there it is, necromancy, grave soaking. No, no, no, that's not what we're saying, all right? Okay, I'm not saying that. I'm saying I had a dream about her and I believe something spiritual took place. I think that God used her as somewhat, or at least her personality as somewhat of an analogy of what I was praying for. And so I'm standing in her headquarters, somebody takes me to this office. And I remember there was this wooden door with like glass in the door. You know, like sometimes the doors have like glass windows and it said her name Coleman on the window. And I opened the door, I go inside and Miss Coleman is standing with her back facing me and she's wearing that long white flowy dress. And I could feel the moment I stepped in that room like a strong electric pulsing on my body. And she turns around and she says, in the way that only Miss Coleman can say it, she goes, Dave, how are ya? And she put her arms around me. I felt warmth, love, this heavy weight of God's glory. And then I woke up and in my room I could sense the weight of his glory. That was an example of a spiritual experience, something happening, an impartation of sorts happening through a dream. Number two, God can reveal the future through dreams. We see an example of this, we won't read it, but an example of this in the story of Joseph going before Pharaoh, Genesis 41, 14 through 28. So number one, God can impart through dreams, I gave you the first king's reference. Number two, God can reveal the future through dreams. This is Genesis chapter 41, verses 14 through 28. Not only can God reveal the future through dreams, God can reveal people's motives. I've had dreams about people where God shows me who they really are. And then I begin to see it start to unfold in my life. But God can reveal through dreams. I remember before we started seeing many of you see online and I'm sure some of you watching have attended where you'll see the pictures we post of the places we go and hold services all around the world where it's packed to capacity. There's people outside and there's long lines around the block that can't get into the building just before that started happening in our ministry. I had a dream where I walked into this sanctuary and I saw just about 20 chairs are so laid out. And I went up to preach in front of empty chairs. And as I stood there looking at empty chairs, all of a sudden chairs all over it, like almost like plants grow out of the ground, but no time for it to take place. Like they're just popping up out of the ground. Chairs started appearing everywhere, so much so that the building itself started to expand. And chairs began to pop up and the Lord told me to prepare for what was coming and I did. And we began to see that happening in the ministry. So that's number two, God can reveal the future through dreams. Number three, God can provide relevant information and mysteries in dreams. Matthew chapter two, verses 19 through 20 says, when Hera died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, to get up, the angel said, take the child and his mother back to the land of Israel, because those who were trying to kill the child are dead. So here we see this warning and then this information saying it's good to go back. Daniel two 28 says, however, there was a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. And he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will take place in the latter days. This was your dream and the visions in your mind while on your bed. There have been times and my wife can attest to this. I will wake up at two or three in the morning with an entire sermon outline in my head. I'll go to bed reading the scripture. And by the way, you know this, I just did this today and I told justice, I bought today an actual physical copy of the Bible. Because I realized when Aria sees me reading the Bible, it just looks like I'm on my phone. So I want my daughter to see me reading the Bible. So I just got one today, it'll be here, I think Saturday. So, you know, at night I'll read the scripture and I'll go to bed and what I just read begins to form. As I must sleep, I will have dreams where I'm sitting there writing an outline and I'll see points one through seven. And then believe it or not, the Holy Spirit actually gives me cross references. Other verses to use to help support those verses. And I wake up, you know how when you try to write a dream down before you forget it, I have to write an entire outline down before I can forget it. And that's what happens sometimes after worshiping, reading the word, I'll fall asleep and then suddenly this outline begins to form and I'll wake up and I write it down real quick and then you hear it on YouTube a week later. That's how the outlines come. Now the truth, the scripture that comes through study but the preparation and how to teach that, the Holy Spirit gives that to me sometimes as I must sleep. And so the Lord does reveal mysteries in dreams. Number four, God can warn you through dreams. Now this is different than just telling the future because as I said, this can be a revelation concerning motives. This can be a revelation concerning a place you're not supposed to be. This can be a revelation of certain things like pride and bitterness in your own heart. I've been rebuked in dreams before by the Lord. And so an example of this will be as we read, Job 33, 14 and pay attention to what it's saying here. Verse 14, for God speaks again and again. Like he's trying to get your attention. You keep having the dream again and again and again. He's trying to get your attention. For God speaks again and again, though people do not recognize it, how frustrating it must be for him. Though people do not recognize it, he speaks in dreams, in visions of the night when deep sleep falls on people as they lie in their beds. Sometimes there's nothing to do but prepare. Sometimes there's nothing much that you can change, but God is preparing you emotionally, mentally, spiritually, even physically for the things that are coming. I'll give an example of this in Genesis 15. Genesis 15, verses 12 to 14. As the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep and a terrifying darkness came down over him. Then the Lord said to Abram, you can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years, but I will punish the nation that enslaves them and in the end, they will come away with great wealth. Now here we see God warning Abram before he was Abraham about the coming captivity of God's people, the enslavement of God's people. And he says, this is gonna happen and they're gonna be bound for 400 years. Well, there wasn't much that he could do about that. There was no preparation, no changes to make, and the Lord even said, you can be certain. This is gonna happen. Nothing to do except prepare. Now you see other examples of this type of warning, Genesis 20, verse three, Genesis 20, verse six, Matthew 2, 12, Matthew 27, 19. These are all examples of the Lord warning us in our dreams. I had a dream one time where I was lying down in bed and I sensed this ugly, dark, demonic presence. You know, the Holy Spirit has a certain sense not when he enters the room, he's everywhere at all times, but when you become aware of his presence, there's this sense that comes over you. How many of you know there's also a sense that can come over you when there's a demonic entity present? Sometimes I can sense it on certain people where you can see the demonic influence on them. And so in my dream I recognized that and I knew I was sleeping, I'm lying in bed and I just recognized that demonic sense, that presence that was unwelcome for sure. I turn around and I look over in the middle of my room and I see like a black mist start to appear. Just like it would evaporate and disappear, it began to appear and thicken from just like a center point in the room and it just started to appear. And in the middle of that black mist, I saw two eyes and a mouth. And it was just, it was just, it was floating there looking at me, smiling, like taunting me. And so I began to rebuke it and it wouldn't budge. Now this is a dream, not reality because we know demonic powers, when you rebuke them in the waking life, they have to go if you're walking in Christ's authority. And if they don't, prayer and fasting will solve the problem. So in the dream, however, that's not what was taking place. And it was taunting and laughing and I said, what are you doing here? You don't have the right to be here. It said, yes, I do. And so I said, well, what do you mean? And it said, ask the one in your family who speaks to the dead and then I woke up. I call my grandmother because my grandmother knows everything going on with everyone. I said, Nani, I just had this dream. Someone in our family is practicing witchcraft, necromancy and the Lord's warning them through my dream. That spirit didn't have influence in my life. That was a representation for the influence it had in that person's life. And so my grandmother immediately knew by the spirit who we were talking about. And she's the Holy Spirit just told me who to call. Calls that individual, it turns out, this person was communicating with what they thought was one of their dead relatives and that dead relative was supposedly coming to them in dreams. And they thought it was just wonderful. They didn't realize they were interacting with the demonic entity. And so that warning rescued them from the influence of that demonic power. Now I'm sure the Lord tried to warn them. I'm sure the Lord gave them dreams and they were probably ignoring it. Now this leads me to a simple point here. It's a common misconception that all dreams from God will invoke peace. How do you know a dream from God? Oh, there's just peace. No, no, no, no, no. What does the Bible say in Genesis 1512? It says that a terrifying darkness came over Abram. Now I'm no Hebrew scholar, but if it's a terrifying darkness coming over him, I think it's safe to say that because it was terrifying, Abram was terrified. He was tormented by this reality. So I'll talk in a moment about how you know a dream is from God. But this misconception that there can never be a deep conviction or even a terror that comes over you, that's just not true. God can be speaking through a dream that brings great terror. In fact, the Bible talks about him terrifying people with his lightning. His presence was terrifying to people in the Old Testament. The apostle wrote, knowing the terror of the Lord we persuade men. This isn't to say he's hateful or vengeful or mean. This is just to say that there are instances where you can receive communication from the Lord that are actually terrifying, especially if he's communicating warning. Now, how can you tell if a vision or dream is from the Lord? We just went over the purposes. God can impart through dreams. God can reveal the future through dreams. God can provide relevant information and mysteries in dreams. God can warn through dreams a little bit different than just knowing the future because not every bit of information about the future is a warning. Sometimes it's a promise. Now, I'm gonna tell you how you can tell if your vision or dream is from God or not. Are you receiving this so far tonight? You're watching online. Let me know if you're receiving this, if this is helping you out, especially if this is helping to reveal some truths in the area of dreams and visions. Let me know in the comments section. Okay, so first and foremost, a dream is going to be from God if it's number one, clear and coherent because we have the Holy Spirit. Watch this, Genesis chapter 40, verse number eight. And they reply, we both had dreams last night, but no one can tell us what they mean. Watch Joseph's reply. Interpreting dreams is God's business. Go ahead and tell me your dreams. See, for the unbeliever, the dreams made no sense. But for Joseph, who was filled with the Holy Spirit, the dreams made perfect sense. So dreams from God are only incoherent to people who do not have the Holy Spirit. So for the believer, you may not fully understand what's trying to be communicated all the time. You may not fully understand the implications of the dream in every instance, but the dream itself will have some consistency and coherency to it. I can't tell you how many times people have told me, strange things, brother David, I had this dream last night. I was at a theme park, then I was at the bank and then the bank had a roller coaster and then there was, I ate a chocolate bar, but it wasn't really chocolate, it tasted like a grape and I'm like, they go, can you tell me what it means? I said, I could make something up. I mean, why not? The bank is prosperity. The roller coaster represents your emotions. The chocolate bar turning to grape means that what you thought was unhealthy will actually be good for you. I mean, you can have fun with these things all day. And some people do that. They'll do that to God's people, just throw out interpretations and pretend they have the answers. But you know, if the Holy Spirit's gonna speak to you, your dream will have coherency, consistency. Why? Because you have the Holy Spirit. It's not perfect clarity. And if it's not perfectly clear, it will at least be coherent. There'll be a timeline. There'll be, you'll be able to tell the dream in a way that's cohesive and logically consistent. It's not just going to be a random flutter of things that you can't even identify. If you live right, your dreams will be clear. You're living in sin, good luck interpreting that. Why? Because sin puts us in a position where our hearts become hard and it becomes difficult to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. Not that he's not speaking, but I'm talking now about the whispers and the wonder. Wisdom and the word, those stay with even backsliders. But the whispers and the wonders, those come to those who are spiritually keen. They have a sharper, more clear ear to the spiritual ground, if you will. Now, if after that, if it still isn't clear, if you get a dream, it's unclear, you pray, you live right, you get things corrected, and then you're saying, okay, Lord, give me the interpretation. And an interpretation doesn't arise. You can safely set that aside. Because the scripture in Job was talking about people who just aren't receiving the warnings. This is very different from a believer who says, Lord, I'm attentive, show me what you mean. And then if there's nothing that comes from that, you can dismiss it. You don't have to walk around all paranoid going, well, what it was God trying to say to me. I know some people who, they come to me with dreams they had six years ago, and they're still tormented by the fact that they don't know what it means. When if God wanted to speak to you and you were attentive to him, you're praying, you're fasting, you don't think he's gonna speak. He doesn't know how to get through to his children. So if there's a dream that doesn't make sense, you pray, you ask God for understanding. But if one does not come, if understanding does not come, you can safely set it aside. You will not be judged for that, why? Because you did your part and it's up to God to do his. Number two, a dream that's of God will be biblical. Second Timothy 3, 16 and 17 says, all scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work. Nothing God ever speaks will ever contradict his word. I have to say that again and again and again because some of us are so, we place so much emphasis on our experiences that we try to make the word of God fit around our experiences. Rather than admit we got something wrong. And so it has to be biblical. At least in its messaging. Now I'm gonna be very frank with you here. I've had dreams where God showed me what certain people were doing and what I saw them doing was not holy. But that doesn't mean the dream wasn't from God. I may have seen things that were ungodly in the dream but the message of the dream itself communicated truth, communicated something consistent with scripture and number three, dreams from God will always, always, always, always be faith producing. Even warnings about your sin. Even warnings about things you need to correct. It will produce the faith to repent. It will produce the faith to trust God. It will produce the faith to trust in his word even though you see what's coming. So Abram, yeah, he knew what was coming but what did God tell him? But after this what? I'm gonna rescue you and the children of Israel will come out with great wealth. So it was faith producing. Even the dreams that contain negative messages like warnings and corrections, they produce faith. Even if it's a warning, you'll be given faith to correct it. If it's your mistake, God will give you the faith to correct it. If it's someone else's mistake, it'll cause you to pray for them but either way dreams from the Lord are always faith producing. So how can you tell a dream or vision from God? Number one, it is clear and coherent. Number two, it is biblical. And number three, it is faith producing. Now I wanna look at how much emphasis we should put on our dreams and visions. Then we're gonna look at what causes dreams and visions to happen. Look at some common dreams and then we'll call it a night. Now how much emphasis should we place on our dreams and visions? Well remember what I told you at the beginning of this message. The word, wisdom, whispers, wonder. It's the fourth category. It is the least important. That doesn't mean it's not important. Kind of like when Paul the apostle writes about when he compares speaking in tongues to prophecy. He's not saying speaking in tongues is bad. He's saying prophecy is better when it comes to the public assembly of believers. So in the same way, I'm not saying that dreams and visions are unnecessary or powerless or pointless. I'm saying that they are not as important as the word. They are not as important as wisdom. And they are not as important as the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking directly to your heart. So let's look here at Deuteronomy 13. Deuteronomy 13, I'll read verses one through four. Suppose there are prophets among you and those who dream dreams about the future and they promise you signs or miracles. And the predicted signs or miracles occur. If they then say, come let us worship other gods, gods you have not known before, do not listen to them. Let's pause there for a second because here Deuteronomy is describing actual power. Here it's saying, look, even if what they say is true, even if they're able to demonstrate that what they speak about the future comes to pass, you do not listen to them if they contradict what I've already told you. And this is why we really need discernment in this hour because there are people who will be able to give you dreams that reveal actual mysteries of the spirit. There are people who do have dreams that do reveal things about the future but if they contradict the word of God, their power is not of the Holy Spirit, that power is satanic. Gods you have not known before, do not listen to them. The Lord your God is testing you to see if you truly love him with all your heart and soul. Serve only the Lord your God and fear him alone, obey his commands, listen to his voice and cling to him. The authority of divine dreams only goes so far and it does not do away with the authority of the word. And number two, authority cannot be claimed from dreams and visions. People who have dreams and visions or experiences with God, this does not mean necessarily just because of their dreams and visions that they're in a position to lead you. Colossians two, 16th through 18th addresses this directly. So don't let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or sabbaths. For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality. Don't let anyone condemn you by insisting on pious self-denial or worship of angels saying they have had visions about these things. Their sinful minds have made them proud. There are people who will be able to say, I've had dreams and who will claim to have encounters with heavenly beings and even God himself. And because of this, they try to claim spiritual power and authority and place God's people under legalism. And the people afraid of the fact that these people are demonstrating supernatural abilities will listen to them and allow them to twist the word of God and cause them to be manipulated and scared into submission. I've seen this happen many times where someone rises and their character is out of line. Their teachings are out of line, but because they can bring people into supernatural experiences, because they can claim they had a vision or dream or they sat with God, it gives them this power and this fear with which they control God's people. But here the Bible says, saying they have had visions about these things, their sinful minds have made them what? Proud. Just from dreams alone, we cannot claim that. Jude one eight in the same way. These people watch this now who claim authority from their dreams. Live immoral lives defy authority and scoff at supernatural beings. Now, I want you to remember in Matthew chapter four when Jesus was led away to the wilderness. Recall that in Matthew three, Jesus was baptized in front of many witnesses by John the Baptist in the river. He goes down into the water and when he comes up, a voice from heaven speaks over him. Everyone could hear it. Says, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. And people saw the Holy spirit. All four gospel accounts say this and Luke's gospel goes as far as to say that the Holy spirit in bodily form descended on Jesus like a dove. And God says, this is my son. So what is the Lord speaking about? He's speaking about Christ's identity. Who was Jesus? God's son. God in the flesh. Now watch this, watch this. Matthew four. If you are the son of God, what is the challenge? His identity. Now wait a minute. If you are the son of God, turn these stones into bread. What does Jesus say? Does he say, devil, weren't you there at the river? Didn't you hear the voice from heaven? Didn't you see the dove? Jesus did not reference his experience. You can't fight the devil with your experience. You fight him with God's word. And so here we see in the scripture that you can't claim authority from your dreams or your encounters or your experiences or how God uses you supernaturally. That's never been the standard for spiritual authority. Authority comes from the word. Remember that not every dream has spiritual significance. Sometimes it's just your mind processing its own issues. But the place of dreams and visions has to be remembered. It is the least reliable way that God speaks to us, but it still is a way that God speaks to us. Well, the Bible says a more sure word of prophecy implying that there are varying degrees of certainty in prophecy. This is why I never understood that people claim that a false prophet is just simply someone who misses it sometimes. It's not biblically true, especially if you read the book of Acts where certain prophets warn Paul not to go, but Paul was told by the Holy Spirit to go. Yet the Bible calls them prophets. So these are things we can reconcile by simply saying that there are varying degrees in which God speaks. But first Samuel 28.6 says he asked the Lord what he should do, but the Lord refused to answer him either by dreams or by sacred lots or by the prophets that we see the many ways he speaks or spoke at least in the New Testament or the Old Testament. Now what causes visions to happen? I'm gonna give you these real briefly and then we're gonna go over some common dreams that people have. Nothing you can do can make God speak to you through dreams and visions, but you can ensure that you're listening if he does. Number one, when Paul had a vision, he was praying. You can see reference to this in Acts 22, 17 through 22. I've noticed that as I increase my prayer life, I become more susceptible to dreams and visions. And I'm not just talking about increasing your prayer life in terms of being aware of God's presence 24 seven. Remember we've talked about here, we've talked about the difference between scheduled prayer and spontaneous prayer. Spontaneous prayer produces longevity, but scheduled prayer produces depth. And there's a depth you go in in the spirit when you pray that you begin to see visions. I'm talking about that moment where you finally put aside distraction, fear about the future, guilt about the past, worry about the present, about all your responsibilities, the distractions of emotions, the distractions of questions, doubt, cynicism, all of it is laid to the side. You have perfect peace. You're flowing in the spirit. I'm talking about coming to that place where you hit this flow in the spirit to where you're no longer trying to keep yourself in the prayer room, but it takes everything in you to pull yourself out of it. When you make that transition, I say that prayer is like digging a well. Every shovel is full of dirt until you hit water. And you dig and you dig and you dig and then suddenly you hit water, the flesh is gone and you're just flowing in it. And you stay in that realm right there. You stay in that flow. Usually for me, about 30 to 40 minutes into that, I start to see heavenly visions. I start to hear, not just about myself, I can start hearing about other people. I can start seeing what God wants me to do, the next steps for ministry. It's this place you come to, but it's the depth of prayer that produces this susceptibility to visions. Number two, John was worshiping. Revelation chapter one, verses nine through 13, tell us of how John was in the spirit. He was worshiping and suddenly he sees this vision. Steve told me a story about how you saw angelic beings while worshiping one time at a youth camp. He saw. Heaven is much closer than you think, much closer. And if we can tune ourselves to the right place in the spirit, according to God's word, by the Holy Spirit, we begin to see heavenly things. So John was worshiping. And then finally, number three, Isaiah was serving. We see that in Isaiah chapter six, verses one to eight. So prayer, worship, and service produce a susceptibility to visions and dreams. One of the most, and I'll use the word strange, but not in a negative sense. I know I use that word sometimes in the negative sense, but I don't mean it in the negative sense. One of the strangest encounters I've ever had with the Holy Spirit happened to me while I was serving in the sound room. I was the song flipper, but basically I was pushing the button for the lyrics on the screens. And I was the guy at the computer. And I'm worshiping and I'm just, I was just speaking in tongues, worshiping. And I heard the Holy Spirit say almost audibly, I can't quite, you know, when you put headphones in and you kind of hear the voice in your mind, but it's hard to explain, it's very hard to explain. But I heard the Holy Spirit very clearly say look. And I turned to my left and I, before God, I'm telling you what I saw. I saw a white flame with the face of a lion in it. And that I looked and I was like startled by what I saw and the flame, the moment I looked at it, it shot into my being. And something shifted at that moment in the ministry even, because I was serving in the sound room, something in my preaching ministry shifted. I don't know what on earth happened, but something shifted in the spirit. And it happened guys while I was serving. Service is spiritual. You do it in the right heart. So number one, Paul was praying. Number two, John was worshiping. Number three, Isaiah was serving. Now let's take a look at some common dreams believers have. I'm gonna pray that we would all surrender ourselves to whatever God has for us in this area. And I'm gonna pray, I'm gonna ask him if it be his will. And I'm not gonna do this presumptuously. I'm gonna ask him if it be his will that God would begin to give us dreams. If it be your will, Lord, begin to give us dreams and visions in the coming weeks. Who knows, maybe even someone watching this right now tonight after they turn this video off is gonna have a dream from God. Now some of the common dreams I've seen, the first one, actually raise your hand if you've ever had this. Have you ever had the dream where you're casting demons out of someone? Raise your hand. Look how common this is. How about, and let me know in the comments too, I'm curious. We'll go to the next one in a moment. This dream of casting demons out, this what it is is a spiritual passion but the Lord has given you to see believers, to see people go free and to see believers walk in that supernatural authority. This is God showing you that the desires you have are his desires too, in this instance. And the same is true of the next one. You ever had that dream where you're praying for someone on crutches or in a wheelchair and they start walking? Raise your hand if that's you. Look around, I mean, listen to how specific I'm being and how common it actually is. It holds the same meaning but in the realm of healing. There's another one that I hear commonly about people seeing a sea of people all around them as they preach to them. This is usually a sign that God has called you to ministry. And a more negative one, I've seen the one where a darker evil figure enter your room. Now let's stop here, okay. Let's, let me, I want to be like a surgeon and dissect something here. Because remember when I said that we ought to interpret our experiences by the word? Let me show you an example of that. How many of you ever had that specific occurrence to where you're lying in bed and you wake up at about three o'clock in the morning and you can't move, you can't breathe and you see like a dark figure or some demonic entity in the corner. Raise your hand if you've ever had that happen. Look around the room. Do you ever notice that this is the only way that demons assault believers physically that they can do it or through a demonically influenced person? It is a demonic attack. But the physical aspect of this is not demonic. Let me tell you what's happening. When you go to sleep every single night your body paralyzes itself. It's a very simple way of putting it because if you have a dream where you're running or swimming or jumping your body doesn't wanna wake itself up. So it paralyzes itself so that it holds still even while you're dreaming. Sometimes what happens is you wake up before the paralysis wears off. And it's at that moment that the enemy takes an opportunity. Your body is doing something it naturally does every night. That paralysis is not an actual demon on your physical body. They can't touch your body. It's the temple of the Holy Ghost. But what's happening is the demon sees it. Oh, they're having sleep paralysis. A naturally occurring phenomenon. I'm gonna take advantage of them and put a lie in their mind by showing them a demonic figure in the corner. See how sneaky the enemy is? And so people wake up from that. They're freaked out. Oh my goodness, I got a devil on me. No, no, no, no, no. You had a devil that deceived you by taking advantage of something that happens naturally every night. And see when you know the truth, it's like, oh, liberating. Okay, so it was just, he's a liar. Yes, he's a liar. But it was still demonic activity, but not in the way we think. I'm curious to know, and maybe some of you can tell me after, but I'll tell this for the YouTube community. I like to know in the YouTube community and Facebook as well, but what are some of the dreams you've been having? Put that on there and maybe you'll find other people have had this commonly occur. I wanna pray now. I wanna ask the Lord to teach us to tread reverently and biblically in the realm of the spirit. And I'm gonna ask him to begin to speak to us in dreams and visions. You wanna ask him that with me? You watching online, we're gonna ask the same thing. Everyone all across the room, hands lifted, eyes closed. Come on, praying out loud in the Holy Spirit. You watching online too. Jesus, we love you, we honor you. And I'm seeing as I said, the many comments from all over the world we're with you too, you're just as much a part of it as people here. So Father in the name of Jesus. Come on, everyone begin to pray out loud in the Holy Ghost now. Father in the name of Jesus, we ask you Lord to help us to be grounded in your word for your word is truth. We thank you Lord that you speak to us by your word. We thank you Lord that you speak to us through wisdom, crime. We thank you Lord that you speak to us directly in our hearts and minds and Lord, we thank you also and we honor the wonders by which you speak. So first Lord, you repent of any cynicism or doubt in this area of dreams and visions. And Lord, I pray you help us to approach this subject grounded in your word. We thank you Father and Lord, we pray that you would begin to visit us. Something's happening in your church. Pray out loud in the Holy Spirit right now boldly. Come on, you watching online, pray out now boldly, boldly, boldly. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Oh, Father, open our eyes. Cause us Lord to hear you in every way that you speak. Holy Spirit, we invite you. Speak to us in the night. Speak to us through visions. Our minds are yours. Say Holy Spirit, I surrender my mind to you. I surrender my mind to you. Steve's saying Jesus, name above all. Beautiful, sing. Beautiful, say, glorious Lord. Take a moment, just begin to love him. Watching online, just pause, pause. We're always in such a hurry, just pause. Everyone under the sound of my voice. Everyone watching. Be influenced by the same spirit who rests on me. Precious Holy God, Holy Spirit speak. Take us to higher places, Lord. Jesus was in the temple. He watched the rich people dropping their gifts in the collection box. Then a poor widow came by and dropped in two small coins. I tell you the truth, Jesus said. This poor widow has given more than all the rest of them. But they have given a tiny part of their surplus. But she, poor as she is, has given everything she has. Let me talk to you for a moment about going all in with your giving. This is the duty that we as believers have to support the gospel with the resources that God has given to us. That is biblical. Now, Jesus was watching as the people were giving. If any preacher did that today, I promise you he'd be heavily criticized for it. But it's what Jesus did. He's watching them and he's weighing their gifts. And then comes along this woman who, though it was a small amount, gave everything that she had. The Lord took notice of that. Jesus didn't stop her and say, wait, wait, wait, wait, you can't afford to do that. No, he praised her for her generosity and the love that she had for God's house. When we give, we have to know why we're given. We give for souls. We give so the work goes forward. Yes, God will bless you. Yes, good stewardship brings about an increase in resources. We know all of those things, but that's not the motive. The motive is we believe in the cause. The motive is we believe in the work. People are being saved, healed, delivered, empowered through God's ministry. I'm just a steward. This is not my ministry. It's his. Everyone is doing their part. And we like this widow must do our part too. You watching online. There are many who give online. Make sure you're doing your part too. We all must give as this woman gave. I'm not saying give everything you have, but she gave sacrificially. That's the principle. Some people like to reverse it too. They say, well, she gave a little, I'll give a little. No, no, no, that's not the idea. The idea is it was a lot to her. Everyone must give according to how God has blessed them financially. And so I ask you in this room to give. And I ask you online to give, give to this work as we continue to create content that's blessing people all around the world by the millions, literally by the millions. Help us continue to do live streams that's impacting literally millions. Help us also to continue to host events all around the world where people are saved and experienced the power of God. That costs resources too. Media and events, that's how we carry the gospel around the world. So I want the ushers to come forward. And as we give tonight, I want you to consider this widow and ask yourself, am I doing my part? Am I participating in the giving toward the gospel? Those of you watching online, you can go to davidhernanisministries.com slash donate. Those of you present, you can give by the envelope. And if you fill out the envelope, make sure that you write legibly and put all of the information down so that we can process everything correctly. And in the meantime, while you're getting your gifts ready here, preparing them, I'm gonna look over online and I see that sovereign gave a one-time gift. Jewels gave a one-time gift. Kingsley gave a one-time gift. Matthew became a monthly partner. Thank you, Matthew, for becoming a monthly supporter. What a blessing that is when people sign up for consistent giving in that way. Whatever your part is, whatever's a sacrifice to you, do that. And give knowing that he's gonna take care of every need. But more importantly, give to Jesus. Give to him. He's deserving. He never held back from any one of us. Let's not hold back from him. Let's give sacrificially, generously. Leslie, thank you for your one-time gift. God bless you. Umakathan, umakathan, just gave. Let me actually see where you're giving from because I believe we have people giving from all around the world. I'm looking now and I see this individual just gave from Canada. God bless you. There's many more who are sowing right now. I'm saying thank you to Luke Wong, who gave a one-time gift. Thank you so much for your support. And I'll see all these as they come in and God will see it more importantly. But I like to read the names and thank you as well. Now you in this place who are preparing to give, remember why we do it. We do it because we wanna see the work continue. We do it because he's worthy. The gospel is worth our support. And those of you watching online, I'll leave you with this. If you enjoyed this message, then make sure you check out how do I hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, three keys. In that teaching, I give you very, very practical, applicable, simple keys to hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit. It's my prayer that by the time you're done listening to that message, you'll be hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit with both confidence and clarity.