God at Work from James MacDonaldSample

Dreams

Jacob had a dream. One hundred and seventeen times dreams are mentioned in the Bible; God revealing Himself through dreams. Has God stopped using dreams? Of course not! God still does what God has always done. But here’s the problem—we take the extraordinary and make it extreme. As far as we know, this is the only time in Jacob’s life where God did this.

Deuteronomy 13:1-5 tells us how to discern whether a dream is a message of encouragement from God. One of the things this passage makes very clear is God never directs us through our dreams unless it is one hundred percent consistent with God’s Word.

You ask, “James, has that ever happened to you?”

There have been a couple of times in my life where I’ve had a dream about worship in heaven. And in the Lord’s presence, all of the burdens of life dropped away and I was so captured in the worship that will be ours through all of eternity. The joy overflowing from my heart was so much I woke up in the middle of the night and my pillow was wet with tears of joy. I believe God does do that. Check any dream against Scripture. It’s not a regular thing. It’s a great mercy that God would minister to us in that way, just as He ministered encouragement to Jacob in today’s verses.

Prayer - Father, I realize that dreams are among the tools You use to get our attention. I think of Joseph, Pharaoh, Peter, and others who were guided by dreams You gave. As I meditate on the way You guide and encourage today, what I long for is Your guidance. I’m not so concerned with how You guide me, but I want to grow in my confidence that You are continually at work behind the scenes in my life to bring about a good end. In Jesus’ name, Amen.