The Call
Everything on The Consider Podcast and website has to do with the call for all men and women to repent. Such is an offer of mercy for those willing to follow Jesus by hating their life and picking up their cross. After all, even the demons believe in God, but they are terrified. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that–and shudder. James 2:19
Dreams, Visions, and Spiritual Gifts
Audiobook
Text Dreams, Visions, and Spiritual Gifts
Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy. (1 Corinthians 14:1)
Spiritual gifts are just as much for today as they were when the Apostles started the first church. Why else would Paul urge us to eagerly desire them? A person filled with a love and faith that comes from heaven will eagerly desire spiritual gifts for the sake of others. Those weighed down with pride will not believe they exist today. We do not have time to discuss how spiritual gifts must be used properly or to defend the fact they exist today. Rather, we want to discover their place in hearing God.
Children are fascinated by magical things and so it is with spiritual gifts, dreams, and visions. Immature children in the Lord remain enchanted by the gifts and seldom use them for their intended purpose. In discussing the gift of tongues, for example, Paul declares that unbelievers and those who do not understand are fascinated by the gift of tongues. Those more mature could care less that a word from the Lord was spoken in a tongue. Rather, they want to know what the tongue means and how to apply it in obedience to the Lord.
Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers; prophecy, however, is for believers, not for unbelievers. (1 Corinthians 14:22)
The prophecy, that is, the understanding of a message in tongues, is for believers. The tongue, or different language, is for the unbeliever. Where you see a group emphasizing that a sign of the Holy Spirit is evident in speaking in tongues, you find mere babes in Christ. God does indeed speak through tongues, dreams, and visions, but it is the obedience that flows from such manifestations that matters. Therefore, Paul, when discussing the vision of the Lord on the Damascus road, emphasized not the vision but the obedience that followed.
“So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven. First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles also, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds. That is why the Jews seized me in the temple courts and tried to kill me. (Acts 26:19–21)
Paul declared clearly that he was “not disobedient to the vision from heaven.” And the Jews didn’t seek to kill Paul because he had a vision, but because he sought to obey that vision. Remember, God only gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey Him.1 So ask your- self a very important question. Why should God give you more dreams or visions or speak to your heart if you do not obey what He has already spoken? To approach miraculous matters of God, we need to look no further than Psalms 119.
Let me understand the teaching of your precepts; then I will meditate on your wonders. (Psalms 119:27)
Let us not behave like immature children, ignorant and enthralled with the USA the gift came in. Rather, let us use the gifts, dreams, and visions God gives us with reverence and awe. Pray and plead, first and foremost that God would teach you His precepts. And after you have gained some understanding by way of the cross, you then will meditate on His wonders. After all, God gives us the miraculous not to entertain us but to increase the righteous obedience of His beloved children. Just as any father delights in the happy obedience of his children.
Think of how Paul was told by God, as recorded in Acts 27, that the ship he was travelling on would have to sink and everything on it would be destroyed. In fact, in order for everyone to be saved, they would have to let go of their lifeboat. How seldom we are willing to let our lifeboat go, to give up all, as Paul did. No wonder God cannot speak to us and no wonder we are not really a blessing to others. Instead, like babies, we remain enthralled with spiritual gifts and miss the whole point of what God is saying.
Without a firm understanding and obedience to the precepts of God, dreams, visions, and gifts only support the sinful flesh of man. We often see this on religious TV and in many churches. For one thing, dreams can often occur because we feel burdened and not at rest in the Lord.2 In short, we sleep in sin and dream dreams that we assume are God giving us answers. More likely, we dream up sinful schemes to fix a problem or achieve something we want.
We should walk with the utmost gentleness when it comes to these aspects of God’s voice. It is easy to misunderstand God’s intentions when He speaks clearly, how much more when God speaks through dreams and visions. This is why Paul wrote that we should weigh everything carefully.
Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. (1 Corinthians 14:29)
In fact, scripturally no one is allowed to speak in tongues in public unless someone can interpret the tongue. It is far too easy to hear what we want to hear rather than what God actually wants to tell us. It is also too easy to say what we want God to say rather than let Him speak His will.
God made our ears to pick up noise more clearly in front of us because we should always seek the face of God and listen to Him. We need to give Him our full and undivided attention. There is nothing worse than a child who will not pay attention to advice given or accept love when it’s offered. Our hearts should burn to seek the face of God, which means we stand face to face with Him who speaks to us.4 If dreams do not lead us to seek the face of God, we miss the whole point for the reason He sends marvelous gifts. After all, dreams, visions, and miracles are small matters compared to what they really mean and point us to.
Let the prophet who has a dream tell his dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain?” declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 23:28)
Straw has its uses, but the grain the straw supported provides bread and food to man and animals. With any miraculous working of God, if we want ears to hear, we must seek the grain and deemphasize the miracle that brought forth the grain. Let us have hearts that are never satisfied until we talk with and listen to God as a lover loves their beloved. Let us be a people that feel burdened by sin and long for God to fully remove the curse of it. Let us seek God not because we get things from Him, seeing visions or having dreams, but because we want to see His face and hear His voice.5 I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of the prophets. Let us be sure we are seeking holiness about spiritual gifts or God might send a lying spirit to work poetic justice in our life.
But let us not demean the miraculous of God and despise prophecies because they may be His voice encouraging us about the future for our life.6 Then we will have a heart that provides us with ears to hear.
Chapter 10: Dreams, visions and spiritual gifts
- Why would we need spiritual gifts today?
- Why do you think that men often overemphasize or deemphasize the gifts?
- In what ways have you misinterpreted or ignored miraculous gifts?
- Does your heart long for more of God? Ask God to work dreams and visions in your life, but plead with Him to use them for His glory.
Ears to Hear: Chapter 11 | [Continue to Next Chapter →]
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