Good morning, good morning, welcome, welcome to the Bible-Based Spiritual Equipping Series
we have been doing on how to hear the voice of God.
What an important subject, what an important thing to think about as we're going through
this COVID-19 pandemic, shelter at home, whatever you want to call it, how important
is it that we are able to tap into infinite wisdom, infinite knowledge, that we don't
have to be alone, we don't have to figure this out by ourself, that God is always speaking
and we're learning that He speaks in so many different ways and we'll talk about the ways
that we have seen so far and then today we are going to get into how He speaks through
dreams.
But I want to preface this just a little bit, I want to lay a little bit of a foundation
and those of you that are on any meeting, if you can mute yourself, oh you're not seeing
the slides, I know what you're trying to say.
Thank you, juggling too many things, appreciate you speaking up, alright, let me share the
screen, we've got two things going on at the same time, okay, so now tell me if you are
seeing the slides, are we good?
No?
Okay, perfect, so let me get that back over, thank you guys on Facebook Live, being patient.
So I want to lay a foundation, I'm going to pray and then we're going to dive into
the many purposes of dreams, how God used dreams so many different ways, but I want
to lay this foundation as we're in this season and having to figure out what they're calling
the new normal, right, we're having to figure out what does God have for us, what does He
have in my life, what's the direction, what's He calling me to do, what's the wisdom, how
can I make the most of this time, how can I be of best service, and so I want to kind
of lay the foundation and I'm going to pray and then we're going to dive into talking
about dreams and how God uses dreams, but the foundation of this is I'd like to share
a couple of verses and the first is Acts 2.17 and it talks about that this is what
I will do, God speaking, in the last days, I will pour out my spirit on everybody and
I will cause your sons and daughters to prophesy and your young men will see visions, your
old men will experience dreams from God. So what we saw is there's no partiality, and
we need to mute on any meeting please, so there's no partiality, He's speaking to young
and old and poor and rich and He's speaking in different ways. As the Holy Spirit comes
for some it's going to be prophecy, it's going to be a knowing of things to come, a knowing
of the heart of God, for others it's going to be visions, it's going to be a seeing,
seeing what God is doing, for others it's going to be dreams, which we're going to talk
about today. And so as we look at these scriptures, I also pulled up Hebrews 13.8 and it says
that Jesus is eternally changeless, that He's the same yesterday, He's the same today, He's
the same forever. And I pair that up, that was Hebrews 13.8, I pair it up with Romans
2.11, which says, for God shows no partiality, no arbitrary favoritism, with Him one person
is not more important than the other. This has been so important for me in this subject
of hearing from God, because I have to tell you, I spent most of my life not knowing that
I could hear from God. And it wasn't until I saw people, I met people that did, I met
people that walked in the prophetic, I walked in people that had a healing anointing, and
what happened for me is it stirred up a holy hunger in me. And I remember telling God,
I really desire that. And I reminded God of this. I said, God, you know, you put these
promises in the Bible, and you're no respecter of people, and if you do it for him or you
do it for her, I want you to do it for me. And God did.
did and and and I would love to bring that encouragement to you that each one
of us has access to God from from the beginning of Genesis to the end of
Revelation and on beyond with the Holy Spirit God has shown that he is always
speaking and that he wants to have an intimate relationship with us and that
he desires to clue you in he doesn't want you going through life blind or
struggling or suffering he wants to speak to you and show you the direction
and and the hope and the possibilities and so I I open this whole thing with
with that introduction as we look in the ways God speaks and we look at dreams
don't look at this as an ancient fairy tale don't look at it as a history book
but look at it how can it apply for you and I now more than ever we need people
of wisdom I think of the sons of Issachar in the Bible and what was said
about them is that they understood the the seasons and they knew in that case
it was Israel what Israel should do how important right now is it for us as
people of God to understand the seasons and to be a voice of hope to be a voice
of love to be a solution and not the problem to not allow the media to create
fear in us and panic and not allow ourselves to shrink down you know I I
think about the ten that went in as spies to the promised land in the Bible
and it's so interesting how our perspective shapes how all of this
influence you see ten went in and yes there were giants in the land that was
true there are circumstances yes we're facing something that is you know
killing people that it could appear to be very very frightening right and
businesses closing and economics so it's not to be Pollyanna not denying that
there aren't Giants in the land but the interesting thing as the ten spies went
into the land two of them said you know what our God is bigger God promised this
land he's a faithful promise keeping God we will overcome we can overtake this we
can do this that was the voice of two Joshua and Caleb in the Old Testament
the other eight said the giant there's Giants and they devoured the land and
it says something interesting it says they saw themselves as grasshoppers they
saw themselves as small as weak as victim as as powerless and it says and
that's how others saw them and so as I lay the foundation for the study you
know I encourage you how do you view God is he weak is this thing catching him by
surprise is he silent is he just you know so far away he doesn't care leaving
us defend for ourselves is he punishing us is he you know how do you view God
and how do you view yourself do you see yourself as a grasshopper do you see
yourself as weak as a victim or do you see yourself as a son and daughter of
the Most High God well able to overtakes the Giants in the land knowing you have
access to all wisdom all resources all knowledge all love all power all
authority we are called the temples of the Holy Spirit we carry the Holy Spirit
we carry God when we walk in a room God walks in a room scripture says the power
of life and death is in our tongue so we carry the power to speak life or to
speak death we have the ability to walk in fear or walk in power faith faith and
fear can't coexist we choose so I'm gonna open with prayer but I just lay
that foundation to consider as we apply these truths this is not something far
away this is not a far away God or a far away truth all right so let's pray
father I just thank you for this time as we as we open your word as we see what
you have done throughout history and how you're the same yesterday today and
forever and how you have always been speaking from the Garden of Eden to now
you've always been speaking and you've told us to eagerly desire spiritual
gifts in first Corinthians 14 especially that we may prophesy you've told us that
love is the foundation and so we come to you asking that you open our spiritual
senses I ask that your
peace, guard the heart and mind of everyone that is listening to this. If they're feeling fear or
uncertainty or any sense of chaos, I pray right now, even at this very moment, that they will
feel your peace. And Father God, for those who are confused and wondering what to do, I pray you'll
speak clearly and that they will have a clear sense of direction that in the midst of the chaos
they can rise, they can serve, they can prosper. History is filled with people who prospered in
the middle of chaos. The Bible is filled with people who rose in the middle of chaos.
And you're no respecter of people. We're counting on that here now. I ask you speak to every person
listening both live and in the recording. I ask Father God, if they need healing in their body,
that you will touch them with healing, Father God. You said that by your stripes we have been healed.
So we thank you for this time. Open our spiritual senses. May the words of my mouth, the meditation
of my heart be pleasing in your sight. Let your word go forth and let it produce fruit, Father God.
Let it produce fruit in every life, the fruit of love, the fruit of peace, Father God. The fruit
of making a difference. I ask this all in the name of Jesus. Amen. Well for those of you who are joining,
welcome. So glad you're on this call and so as we look at historically how God has moved in all
people, in all races and how he has longed, not for religion, I so dislike religion and so did Jesus,
not for religion but for relationship. To be able to tap into infinite wisdom and infinite
possibility and infinite understanding and to have a sense of direction that we are not
directionless. And so as I open, there's a wonderful verse in 1 Corinthians 14 that says,
pursue this love. Everything we do is either fear-based or love-based.
Are we walking in fear? Are we being controlled by fear? You know, fear shuts everything down.
It shuts the body down. Our arteries close down. You know, the blood pulls in. Fear constricts
and love expands. And so I love how this opens by saying, pursue love with eagerness. Make it your
goal. And it goes on and it says, yet earnestly desire and cultivate the spiritual gifts. You see,
there are spiritual gifts and what we're talking about, the ability to know the heart of God,
the ability to see visions, to have dreams, to know the future, to heal, to all these things
are spiritual gifts that God has promised. And it says that we're to eagerly desire and cultivate
these spiritual gifts. And it says, to be used for the benefit of others, especially it says,
that you may prophesy. So it says, you know, desire all these spiritual gifts but especially
desire that you can prophesy. And the meaning of that is to foretell the future, to speak a new
message from God to the people. And scripture says that God never does anything without first
revealing it to people. And we've been seeing that in the previous weeks. And if you've missed
previous weeks, they're all here on Facebook Live. Go back. But we saw the different ways that God
spoke. He speaks in the word. It says that every scripture is written by the Holy Spirit, the breath
of God. And we saw that there's the Logos word, the written word, but it didn't just stop there.
There's the Rhema word. The word continues to be spoken to you and I. We saw that he speaks in
creation, that we can see. We saw that in Romans 1 20. You see God's power. You see his divine
nature. You see all of these things in creation. And I would say that it's super important
right now that we spend time in nature and creation. God has made it such, you know, if we get into the
health and the physiology of it, that the ions will reverse the damage from all the computers
and all the EMFs and they'll quiet and give peace. And so this is a time to dig into the word,
to go into creation. And then we saw how he speaks through visions. There's open visions.
There's dream visions.
internal. I've had these experiences and these visions have profoundly shaped my life. I have
seen what the vision from my life, the purpose from my life, I've seen it in visions and so
God continues to use this for us now and he used it in the past. So one of the things we saw with
vision is that God uses it to prepare people and to open hearts. So when we saw how he brought two
completely unlikely people together, he brought a Roman centurion who it says was a praying man
and a generous man and brought together a Jewish man, Peter, a devout Jew, two people that would
never come together, two nations, two cultures that hated each other, despised each other,
who would never have come together had God not prepared the hearts first. He prepared Cornelius
heart in a dream and he prepared Peter's heart to call no man unclean, to break down the prejudice
of that time and so we saw that the vision God used to prepare people and to open hearts.
We also saw that God used dreams to show the future, to prepare and to provide for us and God
still does that. He shows us things in advance to prepare us for what's to come and so we saw that
in Genesis in the story of Pharaoh and in the story of Joseph and once again God prepares people
and then he prepares events. So amazingly enough he prepared Pharaoh giving him these dreams and
in Pharaoh's case it was a repeated dream. It came a couple times and the dream was one of those
dreams that he couldn't shake. He couldn't forget about it right and you can go back and
listen to this from last week but he prepared Pharaoh that no one could help him, no one could
answer like what is this dream. His magician, sorceress, the people of Egypt couldn't bring
the answer. At the same time he'd spent a lifetime preparing Joseph. Again two very unlikely people
to come together and he had given Joseph wisdom and the gift of interpreting dreams and Joseph
had been faithful to use his gifts even when his circumstances were horrible. Joseph was unjustly
in prison and still in prison he served the other people, the other prisoners and that would
favorably lead to when Pharaoh couldn't find the answer someone who'd been in prison, remember
Joseph, they pulled Joseph out of prison. They bring him there and he's able to answer the needs
of Pharaoh and he has a divine strategy. Pay attention to this because I believe in this season
God is giving us divine strategies right now for what's happening right now and so God used that
of course we saw last week to promote Joseph to the highest position second in command to the most
powerful nation at the time and gave Joseph the divine strategy. Hey there's going to be seven
years of plenty, store up, then there's going to be seven years of famine. I believe that in this season
we need divine strategies. We need people seeking God, seeking wisdom, that they can have discernment,
that they can have wisdom, that they can have understanding. Like I said God keeps putting on
my heart in the Bible the sons of Issachar who were known for understanding the season
and not just having the media control or you know fear mongers you know and so what a powerful time
and we saw that God used dreams. So I'm picking up there today that we look at the purpose of dreams,
the many ways that God uses dreams and I've had such profound experiences with dreams.
I have had dreams that I think if it was only dreams it would make me convinced that there's
something beyond me that there is God working and I've literally had dreams where things manifest.
I had a dream that in a very shortened form I had a dream of a woman Rhonda Calhoun she has a
amazing ministry for sex traffic girls in Missouri and God connected us just
powerfully spiritually and one night I had a dream and I had a
Dream I was in her bathroom and I was like kneeling down and she was anointing
me with essential oils. She had these little bottles of essential oils in her
bathroom and she was anointing me with these oils and do you know she has a
homeless ministry and so she's got food and she serves the homeless food. Do you
know in all the years of getting delivery trucks for homeless that she
stored there, this had never happened. Do you know the next day she got a
delivery and do you know it had the six little vials of essential oils. I've had
so many supernatural experiences that it's probably one of the reasons I'm so
passionate to teach this because I know that I'm no different. God's no respecter
of people. I know what he's done for me. All the things he's shown, all the divine
appointments, all the divine connections like we saw last time that one of the
gifts is divine appointments. I know that's for you too. It's not just for me.
So today let's look at the purpose of dreams in the Bible, the different
purposes. So one of the purposes of dreams in the Bible is warning or to
reveal truth. God will give you a dream to say hey you're heading down a path be
careful. Hey you're connecting with a person be careful. Hey you're doing
something that may not be in your best interest and you'll get a dream to
reveal that. And let's look at an example of that. If you're following in the Bible
you can turn to Genesis 20 and verse 5. Genesis 20 verse 5. It says that, well
let's see, we'll start in verse 3. It says, God came to Abimelech, I'll try to
pronounce that, Abimelech in a dream. So here we see God's coming to a human in a
dream. So God came to Abimelech in a dream during the night and he said behold
you are a dead man. Like you're busted, you're dead. Because the woman you've
taken as your wife, she's another person's wife. Now you see the story what
happened. Abraham had Sarah with him and she was very beautiful woman and when
they crossed this part he was afraid and he said pretend to be my sister and she
honored him and so Abimelech took Sarah to be his wife thinking that it's his,
that it was Abraham's sister. So he wasn't out of integrity. He thought this
was an available woman but look how God saves him. As you go further in the
verses it says, he says, Abimelech says God in the integrity of my heart and
innocence of my hand I've done this. In other words I didn't know and he goes
on to tell the story. He said that it was a sister. Verse 6, then God said to
him in the dream, yes I know you did this in the integrity of your heart. I'm gonna
pause there for a second because in other verses the Bible says the
integrity of the righteous protects us and this is the case we saw in Abimelech.
He was making a mistake. He didn't know but he was about to stumble into
something and his integrity protected him and God spoke to him in a dream and
so verse 6 God answers and said yes I know I know you did this in the
integrity of your heart and it was I who kept you back and spared you from
sinning against me. Therefore I didn't give you the opportunity to touch her so
now return the man's wife. Wow, wow how powerful is this section that a God
spoke to him in a dream that God saw his integrity and God kept him from going
down a path by revealing him into the dream. Hey she's not a sister she's a
wife give her back to her husband. I'm gonna spare you and you can keep your
integrity. So one of the ways that God uses dreams and I believe even more so
now a lot of times things are going to be confusing. Who can you trust? You know
are you supposed to be with this person? Are you supposed to go down this path?
Are you supposed to take this business deal? Are you supposed to? These are
things that God wants us to pray about and it's things he wants to reveal
whether it's in the Word of God that suddenly a verse pops up or whether in
the still small voice of your heart he speaks or whether through other people
he speaks to you whether it's through prophecy or
In this case, through a dream, okay?
So one of the things, the purposes of the dreams
is to reveal truth, to protect us.
We see another case of this in the New Testament
where there's a warning, there's a protection
in Matthew 27, 19.
Now we have a choice whether we listen or not.
In this particular case, he didn't listen
and he suffered for that.
But we see in Matthew 27, 19 talking about Pilate.
So if you remember, Pilate had Jesus there in custody
and he was going to release Jesus.
He could not.
He said, I can't find anything wrong with this man
and every year I give back one prisoner
during these holidays.
How about if I give you Jesus and we just call it a day?
He was saying, I wash my hands of the blood.
But of course the people were screaming,
crucify him, crucify him.
So it says in Matthew 27, 19 that as Pilate
was presiding over the tribunal,
his wife sent him an urgent message.
The power of a praying wife maybe.
His wife sent him an urgent message and said,
do not harm that holy man
for I suffered a horrible nightmare last night about him.
So again, God was speaking to people to perhaps avoid,
to perhaps could have protected Pilate.
He started by standing up to the people and saying,
I don't find anything wrong with this man
and I wash my hands of his blood.
But he didn't have enough courage.
The people when they spoke, crucify him, crucify him.
They didn't have enough courage to stick with it.
But we do see that God was speaking, speaking to his wife
and he could have avoided that.
The second thing that we see in dreams
is that God uses dreams to reveal what will happen
in the near or the distant future.
So God reveals what will happen to us.
And so in Genesis 37, five,
we see that Joseph had a dream and Joseph had a dream
and he saw like the grains of wheat bowing down around him.
And he knew God revealed in the dream
that he was going to be elevated
and that his brothers were gonna bow down.
And so he had this dream.
He made the mistake, I think,
of whether he had pride or not,
he made the mistake of telling his brothers this dream
and the brothers got very jealous.
So this is also wisdom.
When you have a dream, who you share it with,
what you do with it, do you trust it?
Do you pray into the dreams that you have?
Do you ask God to show you more?
In the last couple months,
God has told me specifically first thing in the morning
to write down my dreams.
And right when you first like are waking up,
you know, as you barely are coming out of the dream state,
just focus for a second on what you dreamed
and make some notes about the dreams
and you can pray into it.
There's principles for interpreting dreams,
but ask God to reveal what was in that dream.
What was it for?
And so Joseph didn't do that.
It says, Joseph dreamt a dream
and he told it to his brothers and they hated him for it.
When you go a little further in verse nine,
it says that he dreamt still another dream,
told it to his brothers as well.
And he said, see here, I have again dreamt a dream.
And this time I saw 11 stars
and the sun and the moon bowed down in respect to me.
Now, just out of the blue with your brothers and sisters,
that could appear very arrogant and could cause jealousy.
But the fact of the matter is the truth is
as we fast forward,
we have the privilege looking back on history.
We have the privilege of knowing that God did that
because we saw that last week,
how God raised Joseph from prison
to be second in command
to the highest governor in the land,
the Pharaoh of Egypt.
And that yes, all nations, all people came to him.
He wore the ring, he wore the robe, he had the power,
all came and bowed before him.
So God was beginning to reveal to him his future.
And I imagine that that,
sanctified imagination, that gave him hope. During the many years that he was
persecuted, when his brothers threw him in a hole, they sold him
as a slave, when he was misjudged, when Potiphar's wife went after him and he
was accused of trying to rape her, when he got thrown in prison, you know
sometimes when between the seeing of the dream and it actually
happening, I like to call it between the planting of the seed and the gestation
period. Everything has a gestation period, right? Plants have it, babies have it,
there's a gestation period. So for Joseph, between the gestation period of him
having these dreams, that he has this huge future, that God was going to
elevate him, that he was going to rise in power, and the time that it actually
happened for him was many, many years. How do you keep your hope when God gives
you a vision, when he gives you a dream, when you have a purpose in your heart?
How do you keep your hope during all of that? And I think one of the ways is
writing down your dreams and remembering them, writing down the prophetic words
you got, writing down the visions you got, writing down the miracles, the
experiences, and it's those things that keep us going when times are hard. It's
remembering, you know, God has worked in the past, God has spoken to me in the
past, God has provided for me in the past, God has healed me in the past, God has
given me dreams, God has given me miracles. When you can remember how God
has worked in the past, it gives you hope for right now. And so I think that as God
revealed what would happen to Joseph, that perhaps it was such a profound
experience, it carried him through the hard times. And that leads us to see
dreams can confirm a promise. So if God has promised you something and you
know it, you know God has promised something. I don't know if I've shared
with you, but I had in 2004, I had a literal vision and I had like, I pulled
into my driveway after working out and I saw like a screen and I saw hospitals
and universities and retreat centers and I heard an audible voice, we're gonna
talk about that in the coming weeks, I heard an audible voice and that said I
would be one of the largest philanthropists in the world. That was
such an impactful experience for me. As I always think about the vision that God
has for me and where I'm going, I remember that day that he gave me that
literal vision. And so God has a way through dreams of confirming promises
and so we see that here in Genesis 28 verses 13 and 14, we see that God used a
dream to confirm a promise. And of course this is about Jacob and so Jacob, if you
remember the promises that had been going ever since the grandfather
Abraham, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. There's been this promise of a promised land and
so this promise is having to carry through three generations. This promise
has taken some time to happen, right? And so it says here about Jacob that he
dreamt, so here we see again a dream happening, he dreamt that there was a
ladder or some translations say a stairway placed on earth and the top of
it reached way out of sight toward heaven. And in this dream he saw the
angels of God ascending and descending, going to and fro heaven. So in this dream
you start to just see, huh, there's something more than just earth, what we
see with our eyes. And this happens for for so many of us. Let me take a drink
here. That dreams, visions, miracles, healing, prophetic words open us to
realize that there's more than just here and now. Open us to realize that God is
involved in our life, that he is speaking, that he is still here. And so for Jacob
that would be an amazing reminder to actually see angels going up and down
this staircase. Verse 13, now we hear a voice as well, it says, and behold
He's still dreaming. The Lord stood above him and said. So now we're seeing kind of
a combination. We're seeing that he's having a dream and he's hearing. And so
the Lord said to him, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, your father's father, and
the God of Isaac. And I will give you and to your descendants the land of
promise on which you are lying. So here we see it. That God is using the dream
to confirm what had been promised. And so this will happen for you too. A lot of
times I've had confirming dreams. I remember in 2012, I had 12 dreams
confirming something God was showing me. And so a lot of times he'll use that.
He'll use that to confirm. Okay, another purpose of a dream. Okay, another purpose
of a dream is encouragement. Just to encourage you. Maybe, you know,
encouragement, right? N means on the inside, courage. Maybe your courage on the
inside is lacking. Maybe you're getting tired as we're facing this pandemic, or
you're facing financial trials, or you're facing sickness, or you're facing fear, or
you know, so many things that people are facing right now. We need encouragement.
We need to be encouragement to each other. But I believe God is no respecter
of persons. He's still causing dreams and he's still offering encouragement. So in
Genesis 28 15, we see this,
This is a continuation of the dream that he was having, where he saw the
angels going up and down, and the Lord reminded him of the promise, and then the
Lord encouraged him by saying, don't worry, you're never alone. I'm never going
to leave you. I will fulfill the promises. And again, please remember that God is no
respecter of persons. What he did for Isaac, or Abraham, or Jacob, or Moses, or
anybody else in Scripture, he will do for you. God is the same yesterday, today, and
forever. So when you see these things, be encouraged of knowing that God is there
for you as well. And I recently spoke to someone that is in a very, very hard
place. I can't reveal, but very hard place. And it was so crushing and so
discouraging that he actually asked God. He said, God, I can't take this. Please
give me a dream. Please, I need hope. Give me a dream. And God was so gracious to
give him a dream and reveal what was to come. And so we see this still happening
today, that one of the ways God speaks is through our dreams. And so he can remind
us of promises. He can prevent us from sinning. He can offer encouragement. He
can show us things to come so we can have provision. Look at this one. Here's
another one, another purpose of a dream. It can give a person direction. We see
that God used dreams all through the Old Testament, all through the New Testament
to guide and direct people. And so how important that maybe we be praying, God, I
need direction as we go through these hard times. Give me direction. How can I
pivot my business? You know, as a coach, I'm in the middle of helping lots of
businesses rise up. So now more than ever, we need direction. Maybe you're wondering
for your career. Maybe your whole business has changed. Your whole finances
have changed. You know, whatever it is, you know, now more than ever, we need
direction. And dreams are one of the ways that God gives us direction. And so look
at an example in Genesis 31, verses 11 through 13. It says, And the angel of God
said to me in the dream, Jacob. And I said, Here I am. And he said, Look up and
see all the rams which are mating with the flock are streaked, speckled and
spotted. For I've seen all that Laban has been doing.
you and I am the God of Bethel where you anointed the pillar and where you made
a vow to me now stand up and leave this land and return to the land of your
birth." Now if you know the background of this story Jacob was in love with
Rachel and he agreed to work for the father Laban in order to win her you
know buy her whatever and um and Laban paid a dirty trick on him and gave him
the sister Leah right and so now he's still so in love with Rachel and so he
agrees to work another seven years and so we see that he does that so if you go
in and you see the story um but now you see he's been serving faithfully he's
been doing what he's supposed to do and God reveals to him in a dream hey look
I'm working on your behalf I've seen I've seen your hard work I've seen you
walk in integrity like we saw in the previous verses you know the integrity
of the righteous protects you I've seen that you have been mistreated I've seen
that you've been abused you know I've seen and he says now's the time and so
he says now's the time take the ones that are speckled go go back to the land
of your birth and so sometimes what we need is to know divine timing when God
is this the time to start a business is this the time to close my business is
this the time to travel is this the time to get married is this so often we need
this kind of personal and God we see in all these examples in a dream God is a
personal God interested in our personal affairs and willing to speak to us and
willing to give us direction and so here you see that one of the purposes of
dreams is to give us direction so sometimes it shows us things to come so
we can prepare sometimes gives us encouragement sometimes protects us from
making a wrong move sometimes gives us direction let me give you another
example in the New Testament of direction in Matthew chapter 1 verses
20 through 23 Matthew 1 verses 20 through 23 look at this this is talking
about a different Joseph so don't confuse these in the Bible we're in the
New Testament and this is Joseph and Mary Jesus's parents right and so he has
a dream because he finds out Mary's pregnant and he's not the daddy and the
story of the Holy Spirit making her pregnant is a little fishy for him and
he's about to quietly divorce her he's about to quietly break off the
engagement in the marriage and and just end it all and again God intervenes in
dreams and it says in verse 20 that as he considered this dream or what he was
going to do an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream so we do see
throughout scripture we see angels visiting people and very often it's in
the form of a dream and so we see this with Joseph it says that as he
considered this an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said
Joseph son of David the angel said do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife
for the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit verse 21 and she will
have a son and you are to name him Jesus for he will save his people from their
sins and verse 22 all this occurred to fulfill the Lord's message through his
prophet so we've seen this has already been spoken throughout history through
the prophets now it's being confirmed in a dream to Joseph so he would know what
to do and he quotes the prophecy that the Virgin will conceive a child and
they will call him Emmanuel which means God with us so this is a situation where
Joseph was going down one path because what his eyes saw was my wife has slept
with somebody else and I'm about to be humiliated my life is about to be
ruined I love her I don't want to see her stoned and she will be I'm gonna
quietly put her away and divorce her quietly and so Joseph had these
assumptions like we can have he could be going down one path like we can be going
down the path and the dream completely changed the path the dream said to
Joseph, look, you're not seeing things all the way.
You're not understanding that this is me, God, working.
In this circumstance that feels at this moment like the worst thing that could ever happen
to you, like the one you love was unfaithful, what feels like your world is turning upside
down and you think God has left you and you don't know how he's going to move.
It's in that time that the dream came and said, listen, this is me.
I'm working here.
Don't change.
Take her as your wife and you are actually part of fulfilling prophecy.
You are going to see Emmanuel, God with us.
The Messiah that you've been waiting for is in the belly of that woman.
Stay with her.
So how amazing that dreams, as we've studied these, can give people directions, give nations
directions and can totally change the course of history.
What an amazing thing.
I mean, are you starting to have an appreciation of how powerful dreams are?
I mean, if God did dreams like this so many in the past, how much more do we need it now?
Let me give you one more example.
Still Joseph, still Mary, go Matthew chapter 2, 12 and 13 and also verse 19.
Now they have to leave and she's had the baby.
We're fast forwarding and it says, when it was time to leave, they returned to their
own country.
Remember, God gave them a dream and they left and went to Egypt to protect Jesus from being
killed by Herod.
And now they're there.
It says, when it was time to leave, they returned to their own country by another route.
Look at this, for God had warned them in a dream not to return to Herod.
And so again, we see God intervening in, in history and nations and often stopping us
from doing what would be the normal thing to do.
It would be normal to go back a certain route to their land.
And God is saying, no, don't do what appears normal.
I need you to do this.
Verse 13, it says, after the wise men were gone, so remember Jesus was born in the manger,
the wise men came.
It says after the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream.
So here we see God working in dreams again and says, get up, exclamation point, flee
to Egypt with the child and his mother.
So again, a warning, run for your life.
We see that he wouldn't have known you have a brand new baby.
You're not thinking about traveling to Egypt.
God had the protection, in this case, yes, it's of Jesus, but we see this through all
people in all time, how in dreams, God protected his people saying, you're going this way,
but I'm telling you, no, go this way and averting a disaster or a death or a crisis.
And you know, he had a choice.
We all have choice.
He could have said, oh man, I had a weird dream, but no, that doesn't make sense.
I'm not going to Egypt right now.
We have a choice.
We have the freedom of choice to choose to ignore the dream and find out later, wow,
I should have listened, or it might even be to intuition.
But if we obey, you wonder how much can be saved.
And so he says, get up, flee to Egypt with the child and his mother.
And the angel said, again, a dream, an angel speaking, stay there in Egypt until I tell
you to return because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.
And so they had to stay in a foreign country based on a dream, an angel speaking to them
in a dream.
They packed up and moved to a foreign land and stayed there until God revealed that it
was time to go back.
In verse 19, after Herod died, then look at this, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream
to Joseph in Egypt.
So then after tells him to go back.
So see how one of the reasons for dreams is direction.
Okay.
They can also, dreams can also offer a person a gift.
It can be a personal interaction.
God can interact with us in our dreams.
with this one and that is in 1st Kings 3 5 and it is the story of Solomon who we
know as the wisest man in the Bible perhaps in history and we saw with
Solomon God appeared to him in a dream it says 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
and if you follow the story Solomon didn't ask for money didn't ask for
things he asked God for wisdom and God said because you have asked for wisdom
I'm not only gonna give you wisdom I'm gonna give you the desires of your heart
but I'm also going to give you I'm also going to give you the the wealth and the
things so I'm just playing with my computer here if I look distracted here
okay so we see that God is is moving in in all of these ways we see that the
purpose of dreams is to direct us to protect us so I I pray that this study
has has touched you I pray that it's created a holy hunger in you that you'll
hunger and thirst to have more of God like we read in 1st Corinthians 14 that
you'll eagerly desire the gifts especially that you'll prophesy that you
will that you'll know the divine counsel of God for this season and that you can
be a light and so I'm gonna close with prayer I want to thank you so much for
being part of this we're here every Tuesday morning you can watch live or if
you want to be on the mailing list you can watch on any meeting calm I've been
posting that if you want to see the slides or you want to do both I am super
excited about this season I understand the darkness and the sinister side of
things and the suffering but I also believe that God like Joseph said what
the enemy means for harm God is using for good and I believe that this is a
season if you're in business I'm helping businesses left and right to pivot to
launch grow change start their businesses to be of service in this time
if it has to do with your health or your peace or your sense of direction please
schedule a free call with me you can go to prosper in all things calm and you
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out every Sunday afternoon around noon it is a bridge of scripture and science
to just be a voice a voice of hope a voice of direction that's my prayer to
God that I will be the voice of encouragement I feel that the call on my
life the the teaching and prophetic anointing on my life is to equip and
empower especially women to to prosper in every area of their life to step into
their kingdom assignment I have a coach certification program and this is a way
that I can raise up coaches so that you can be in business for yourself during
the season and I believe never has there been such a need for coaches because
people are struggling in their relationships in their finances in their
business and you know their health and so for that reason it's even more
important I'm offering a discount during this pandemic right now 40% off so if
you've thought about starting a business you want to be able to work
online from home be able to create a great income I have that as well so
schedule with me prosper in all things calm and I'd love to talk with you if I
can be praying for you you could just send me a note here on Facebook or
anywhere else let me know you enjoyed this let me know if there's something
you want me to cover or study as we go through this stuff here's something you
want to know about how to hear the voice of God leave me a comment I promise I
will read it I will pray for you I will integrate it into the study if there's
any way maybe I'm not even thinking of it that I can serve you that I can be a
voice of hope or encouragement during the season that is my heart absolutely
so I'm going to close with prayer and blessings on your life and I want to
thank you once again for being with me on this study so father I just thank you
for this time I thank you for your word I thank you for all the examples in
history from
Genesis to Revelation and beyond in all the men and women of God throughout all history that you are always speaking
That you are always preparing our hearts that you desire not religion, but a
Relationship that you guide us that you direct us you are our Shepherd
You lead us you provide for us you protect us
You are good and you are loving and you never leave us you never forsake us
I thank you for your word and I pray that whatever was spoken in this teaching today. I pray it brought hope
I pray it brought encouragement. I pray that it raised up faith. I pray that it dispelled fear
I pray that it gives soundness of mind
You have not given us a spirit of fear, but a sound mind of love and power
I pray that your people will rise up with a sound mind of love and power
That they will not be like the spies that saw the obstacles saw the Giants and saw
Themselves and God is small. They saw themselves as grasshoppers that we will not be helpless hopeless victims
But that we will realize we are the sons and daughters of the Most High God
That we have received your Holy Spirit that you have given us all authority that the power of life and death is in our tongue
Lord God and that we will rise up and step up and be a voice of hope a voice of love and a voice of
Service and an act of service Father God in this season
I pray for anyone that needs peace that your peace that passes all understanding will guard their heart and mind in Christ
Jesus I pray if their body needs a touch or a healing that you will heal them
I pray that if they lack wisdom you've promised in the book of James
That James one that if anyone lacks wisdom that they can ask and that you will give
Liberally without finding fault. It doesn't matter your past when we ask God for wisdom
He is faithful as we saw today. He's no respecter of people. He hears you
He will respond to your hunger. He will respond to your desire
He will most of all respond to your surrender father God
I just pray that you move mightily in the voice of everyone listening to this recording now live and in the future
Thank you for being here. I'm here every Tuesday morning
730 the recordings of the ones before
Are here if you want to go deep if you want to study how you can hear the voice of God in this season in
this time
Thanks for joining me
We'll see you same time same place next week
You