Once again, as we seek to give a biblical response to this question, we are not questioning whether God can or could speak through Dreams today. For those who believe that God speaks to us through random thoughts, impulses, and visible signs, it is not so alarming that He also communicates through dreams and visions. Though some are hesitant to offer guidelines for interpreting dreams, others are very clear about God speaking in this way. Dallas Willard, for example, wrote a book entitled Hearing God, in which he claims that dreams still play a role in God’s communication. According to him, this communication venue is given to those less spiritual and admits that we should develop a close relationship with God through prayer in which we hear God’s voice.
Robert Morris shares a dream he had in which God told him to build a church of 30,000 people that reaches 300,000 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. God also gave him the specific outreach number of three million in Texas, thirty million in America, and three hundred million worldwide. While pondering the meaning of the dream, he read from 1 Samuel 11:8 the following morning where the children of Israel numbered 300,000, the men of Judah numbered 30,000 and concluded that this was confirmation that God had spoken to him. Again, we are not advocating that God cannot work this way because he did in the past. Nearly everyone who believes it is normal for God to speak to us in this way assumes that interpreting them must be confirmed by other voices. Jack Deer, in Surprised By the Voice of God, includes a section on interpreting dreams and believes to ignore them is to ignore all that God wants us to know. However, he also admits that not all dreams are significant to write down (a suggested practice). How are we to determine which are substantial enough to write down? Is it not within the realm of possibility that God would be telling us something in a dream that we do not consider worth recording? He cautions against waiting to write it down when you wake because you might forget and lose that message from God but recommends writing down only the meaningful dreams. Deere moves from one subjective comment to another and leaves one more confused.
Of course, as is true of any venue claimed as God’s voice, the subjective interpretations one places on them are based on personal experience, particularly the current circumstances and concerns that occupy their current thinking. In this case, we can interpret our dreams in any way we choose and claim that God spoke to them. Whether conscious or unconscious thoughts, these are the product of our own imaginations. Even among the examples of dreams recorded in the New Testament were clear, direct revelations. No idea was given to interpreting them. They were an unmistakable revelation to people under the direct guidance of the Holy Spirit. When there was a need for interpretation (e.g., Joseph’s dreams), the interpretation was itself a revelation. It was not left up to the dreamer to interpret its meaning. Even the dream of a pagan king like Nebuchadnezzar was not left up to Daniel’s own imagination. God not only revealed the dream to Daniel to confirm to the king his divine guidance but revealed its interpretation (Dan. 2:36-45). He did not leave it up to people to interpret their dreams.