Visions, Dreams and Premonitions (New)

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Registered: 10-09-2004
Visions, Dreams and Premonitions (New)
Tue, 11-08-2005 - 2:44am

We are here as part of a journey that continues long after we are gone. God reveals to us each day in subtle ways that He wants to use us. It may be that He will use our expertise on any given subject to guide others, or He may choose to reveal things to us in dreams that may appear cryptic or hard to understand. However, He chooses to make contact with us, is all about one thing, it is about His plan for our lives. Those of us who dream things, see visions or have premonitions may tend to have a higher sensitivity to the spiritual than others. This doesn't mean that they are more special than others. Most people have these same sensitivities, but some of us just happen to be more attune to the spiritual things, for some reason, more than others. This does not mean we are psychic either. It just means that there is an intercessor within us (whether we know it or want to believe it or not) who has been bestowed upon, the ability to pray powerfully and with a fervency, that is truly God given. The responsibility of having a special gift from the divine, carries a huge weight of responsibility and therefore it is important for the person who experiences and shares these gifts to handle them quite responsibly and delicately.

You may not consider yourself a person of faith, but God knows us better than we do. He created us, so why would He not know us. I urge people who have dreams to always, always immediately begin praying and seeking answers in the scriptures and to ask first “Lord, is this from you?” and seek out what might be the source of the dream or manifestation before one jumps to conclusions. More often the answer is found in reading the scriptures or books that outline the origins of God making contact with man and how it is that He imparts His gifts.

If a person experiences a dream, vision or a premonition, however, scary or overwhelming it might be, it is important to do research and understand where the information is coming from. Remember always, that according to the scripture, God does not make it His business to provoke fear in us human beings. If we happen to react to something in fear, the source that provokes this fear should be questions. When something is of the divine one does not feel fear.

Here’s an example from Genesis 18:1-5, which reflects how a person would respond when a messenger from heaven visits. This would also apply to having a dream or a vision:

The Three Visitors who visited Abraham from the Book of Genesis

The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground. He said, “If I have found favor in your eyes, my Lord, (Abraham immediately knew exactly who was visiting him) do not pass your servant by”. “Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way – now that you have come to your servant.” “Very well,” they answered, “do as you say.”

Abraham, did not feel fear, instead he welcomed the three angels sent by God and offered them repose. If a person who experiences something of this nature, or a dream or vision, does not know where to go to seek answers in the scriptures (the Word of God / the Bible), I urge them to please, please contact a Minister or Spiritual leader, who will pray and help guide them toward finding an answer. If an answer is not found, there’s no sense in belaboring it and without forgetting that experience, should put it at the back of their mind and wait until he or she receives a full revelation, but sleep should not be lost as a result of it. As my Minister used to say, it may just be a “rice and beans dream”. It’s possible that an explanation will be obvious, but some time down the road, or perhaps it might not, but best to always just pray to be sure that what you have experienced is of God. God chooses people who have been sealed by Him to be constant prayer companions. They may be our Spiritual leaders or the humble little grandmother who quietly sits on the third pew of your congregation, that nobody seems to take notice of, except that she’s devoted and a real prayer-minded person, but be aware that that grandmomma’s prayers probably pack a good spiritual punch. You may be just like that grandmother or you may be someone who does not have a strong connection to God, but yet He may choose to reveal Himself to you. There is always some underlying reason, for which God would speak to someone through a dream, visit or premonition, but it will somehow be obvious right away where this message is coming from. Always question where experiences like that come from. If you ask yourself if you were scared, chances are your experience was not from heaven.

Prayer warriors are classified as people who pray untiringly, because God has selectively chosen them as special channels and He happens to hear their prayers because of this gift of prayer that He has chosen to give them in the first place. Prayer warriors know how to pray and they don't stop until they have answers. Some of these people are of humble origins and perhaps don’t even realize that praying is their true and only calling in life or their special gift and that this is the reason why they have these premonitions, dreams or visions. Most often, people who experience a revelation of some form, experience it, just so that they can pray and that is all. Sometimes the person receiving a message may feel it necessary to warn the people in the message, gently, without alarming them. When someone has a premonition, dream or vision, it is necessary to gently and carefully let the people that you've seen in your dream, vision or premonition know that you experienced something that involved them, but without giving too graphic a detail or without alarming them.

It's best to let them gently know that you are praying for them. Sometimes it happens so you can just pray, so that God will prevent an event from happening, or if not to stop it, or if not then perhaps to soften the blows of tragedy, situation, difficulty or just a serious problem. The prayer companion is to pray so that peace, healing, strength, faith will not be lost on the part of the individuals that are involved, but rather that peace, order and structure remains in the person’s life despite suffering a tragedy or just a simple little problem that was revealed to them, might come.

God is a God of order and when we are warned in advance, these warnings do not guarantee that all will be well and that there will be no losses. However, it guarantees that peace and strength will follow, if we are to receive the spiritual by diligently praying, but just for the sake of recovering our peace.

If you are revealed something in a dream, but cannot prevent something negative from happening, like failing a college exam, then you can heed that warning, by putting more effort into your studies and being mindful of praying. Your faith will help you to pass your test, because you heeded the message that was received.

People struck by problems or difficulties in life, that have been revealed to them so that they can prepare themselves spiritually, still go through a battery of mixed emotions from grief, to sadness, to anger and a gamut of different emotions. Just because one has faith and is devoted, does not mean that one will avoid feeling grief, pain, loss and anger, but for sure our prayers will restore order back into our lives.

When a premonition, dream or vision comes to you, the wisest thing to do is immediately seek answers from God through prayer, as even science has proven that there is power in prayer and if God has given you the power to intercede for others and be a prayer warrior, not for quick fixes or miraculous developments, but just to pray for the strength and healing of the spirits of others who have gone through trying times in their lives, you have surely received the highest honor from above. Let us not be proud of such gifts, but thankful that He has seen us as fit to be responsible for bearing such beautiful gifts. God bless you!

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all He created." (James 1.17, 18)