How ANYONE can find out the meaning of their dreams and how they apply to real life.

Growing up, I was always intrigued by dream interpretation. I can remember from an early age that if someone had an unusual dream which had them curious, they would go to someone that they considered to be prophetic to seek an interpretation. Although I do believe that God can speak to a person concerning your dream or even give someone a dream as a message for someone else, I have come to believe, through training and experience, that the vast majority of dreams are deeply personal in nature and really can only be interpreted by the dreamer. I don’t believe in any “one size fits all dictionary” or “encyclopedia” of dream symbols. I do strongly believe that the symbols in a persons dream have a very specific meaning to that person and something totally different to anyone else. When I talk about dream interpretation or dream analysis, it’s never me telling someone what their dream means, but rather leading that person through a well ordered process of closely examining their dream and assisting them in finding its meaning for themselves.

Dream Interpretation is not a matter of being told what your dream means, but a matter of personal discovery and revelation.

Dreaming is such a normal and intrinsic aspect of human life that we often tend to just brush them off and say it was because of that late night Mexican food or that movie you watched before bed. While diet and media can and do have a direct impact on what our brains are doing at night, we cannot let them all go unexamined and ignored. To ignore our dreams is to ignore a very important part of our mental, spiritual and even physical life. We are more likely to dream after eating late at night because our bodies are busy digesting and keeping us in a light sleep. We dream of characters from movies because that is what is fresh and memorable and our subconscious is using that to communicate a point.

What are dreams?

Dreams are the persistent attempts of your heart/subconscious to get you to acknowledge and process your emotions regarding current life issues.

For the purpose of this introduction to dream interpretation, I’m going to address the majority of dreams with the assumption that they are NOT prophetic, or a foretelling of future events. A prophetic dream would be a direct message from God to a person or group of people regarding either current or future events. That is a whole other category of dreams and I think it’s safe to say that most peoples dreams are not prophetic.

For most of us…

the meaning of any given dream pertains specifically to the dreamers life, even if the dream is about another person.

Your subconscious mind is trying to communicate with your conscious mind about things that, in one way or another, whether intentionally or not, you have ignored or left unresolved and it is doing so using visual metaphors.

Sleep is your bodies natural time to rejuvenate and repair physically and emotionally. While your body may be at rest during sleep, it is hardly inactive. Your entire body is highly active during sleep with hundreds, even thousands of biological processes going on. While many of those processes are related to your physical health, your mind and spirit are also doing a lot. When you dream, your heart is processing things that have happened in order to bring any number of things – healing, restoration, closure, peace, etc. Your heart is communicating with you in a way that only you will (hopefully) remember and understand.

Remember that crazy, wacked out, bizarre dream that made no sense? In fact, it was so crazy that you shared it as your Facebook status and got a bunch of “lols” and sarcastic comments. Well guess what… It means something. 

Do all dreams really mean something? Say you just had a dream about characters from a movie that you watched recently – can that really mean something? Yes. How about undigested spicy food?  Did you eat pizza before you went to bed? Those dreams all have meaning. Maybe you tend to have deja vu type dreams where you feel like you’ve “been there before.” If you ever find yourself having a recurring dream or a recurring theme of dreams, you can be quite sure they mean something and only you can derive its meaning for your life.

It’s also important to mention though, that while all dreams have a meaning, NOT all dreams have significant meanings. Have you have ever had a conversation with a friend where you simply needed to be heard about your feelings without wanting any advice? Maybe you just wanted to blow off steam about something that was frustrating you. Or like the little girl from the movie “Despicable Me,” maybe you just need to exclaim “IT’S SO FLUFFY!!” about her new stuffed animal. The meaning of some dreams may simply be your soul saying, “This is how I feel! Don’t fix me. Just listen!” How can you tell the difference between a dream that has an important message and one that does not? While it’s not always easy to tell at first glance, you can be confident that if a dream causes you any level of significant emotion (good or bad) when you awaken, or leaves you persistently curious, then it is worth examining.

In my early years of dream interpretation, I found myself stacked up against some pretty scholarly seminary graduates who held the very idea of finding meaning in dreams to be pointless and hokey. Their view of dream interpretation was basically an image of someone sitting indian style around a campfire, burning incense and chanting something unintelligible. But despite their hesitations, those that actually decided to go through a session with me walked away with dramatically changed views.

There is a formula to this and it makes sense!

So what does God say about dreams?

God says that he will speak and counsel through dreams. 

“And He said, “Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream” – Numbers 12:6 

“And it shall come to pass in the last days,” saith God, “I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams” – Acts 2:17 

“I will bless the Lord who has counseled me; Indeed, my mind  instructs me in the night.” – Psalms 16:7 

 “I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets” – Hosea. 12:10

The Bible is full of God speaking, counseling, and giving supernatural gifts to people through dreams. 

Here are a few examples of dreams in the Bible. There are many more instances which could be included, but these are just some of the most prominent and influential examples.

• King Solomons conversation with God regarding the gift of wisdom took place in a dream (I Kings 3:5,9,12,15).
• Jacob dreams that God tells him his dependents will be numerous. (Gen. 28:10-22)
• Joseph’s dreams (Gen. 37:1-11)
• Joseph helps interpret the Kings dreams (Gen. 40:1-23)
• Pharaoh’s symbolic dreams (Gen. 41:1-49)
• Several dreams of various rulers (Daniel 2:1-49, Daniel 7:1-28, Daniel 8:1-27, Daniel 10:1-12:13)
• God helps Joseph process Mary’s life events by speaking to him in a dream (Matt. 1:20-25)
• God gives Joseph a warning and direction in a dream (Matt. 2:3-15; Matt. 2:19-23)

Dreams are meant to heal and bring life.

“God speaks once, even twice, and still the hearer misses the point. ‘In a dream, in a vision at night, when slumber falls upon people, as they sleep in their beds, he opens people’s ears and seals the matter with a warning, to turn a person away from his action and protect a man from pride, so that he will keep himself away from the pit and from perishing by the sword.” – Job 33:14-18

Dreams can consume a person. They are the innermost thoughts and feelings of the heart of the individual and when its meaning is lost on the dreamer, the heart will continually bring it before him so it’s message can be interpreted.

There is a beauty and sense of relief when one finally receives the interpretation to their dream. The situation or circumstances causing the dream may still be present, but understanding the dream and processing those emotions is enormously therapeutic. It’s why I love it. It’s why I have given a decade of my life to helping people.

If you’re reading this, then I’m guessing you’ve probably had one or more dreams that are motivating your search. Please, by all means, try our free online Dream Analysis, or reach out by using the Contact form. Beginning the conversation is the first step to finding the peace and resolution you need.