Dream Types
DREAM TYPES
// Where do dreams come from? //
Dream Types: Where do dreams come from?
I think it would be safe to say that no one wants to attribute a dream as being from God, that might of just been a mixture of bad pizza and your own ambitions. Yet this happens, when medaling with the prophetic. There is a learning curve and just with anything that has many moving parts it takes a bit of time and practice to properly understand. So, in this section, I want to define several different factors that influence dreams.
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole
spirit, soul and
body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 (emphasis added)
In Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul eludes to humanity consisting of three parts; body, soul, and spirit. Then, Paul takes it even further to insinuate the notion that each of these parts as a whole or separate entity can be corrupted or sanctified. For the sake of understanding our dreams I want to use both themes that I pulled from this verse. One, that each aspect of our nature (body, soul, and spirit) can affect our dreams and two, that the corruption or sanctification of each part has equal ramifications. If you read enough books on this topic you will find that a lot of other teachers, on the subject, use a similar model. This next section might be a bit boring but I believe it’s absolutely critical, because once you discover what affects your dreams you will have a much greater chance at interpreting them.
// Defining Soul //
Your soul is your mind, will and emotions, and overall represents your identity as a individual. Common phrases you might hear throughout our culture are: “Restless soul;” “I put my heart and soul into it;” and “Eyes are the windows to the soul.” If you are having a bad day, you might say, I have a restless soul. Or you might hear someone described as losing their soul, if that individual has given themselves fully to immorality, a sinful lifestyle, or if they have no care or concern for other people. Overall, the term represents an individuals state of being and inner emotional self.
“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?”
Mark 8:36
In Matthew 6:22-24, Jesus talks about how our eyes are the gate to the body, and He says, if our eye is bad our whole bodies can be corrupted. In the same way, if your soul becomes corrupted, as insinuated in 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24, it will affect your entire life, and more certainly your dreams. Have you ever watched a bad movie right before bed and your dreams were affected? Similarly, if you are under a lot of stress or struggling with something emotionally it is easy to notice that our relationships, diet, and sleep / dreams may be affected.
In high school, I was on the track team and sometimes before a big track meet I would be up the whole night dreaming about the events I was going to run. Basically, the stress of the next day’s activity would actually personify itself in my dreams. When this would happen, I would usually sleep very little and wake up extremely exhausted the next day. Also, for years I was always running from bad people in my dreams. This, also, could be considered a “soul dream.” In reality, I was running from God and not submitting my life fully to Him. On top of that, I was allowing a lot of unhealthy beliefs into my heart. One belief I had is that God could not love me. I figured I was too bad of a person to be accepted by Him. In return, my dreams and lifestyle reflected the belief system I had chosen.
Overall, my advice to you would be to watch what you feed your soul and to start taking note of your dreams and why you have them. If you have a bad dream, attempt to see if anything in your dream might of been affected by your day, recent decisions, lifestyle choices, or beliefs. An easy way to do this is by recording your dreams in my dream journal, Revive The Night Dream Journal, and then filling out the How Are You section, which is further explained in the Journal Key of that book. Sometimes, I don’t notice a pattern in my dreams until I see an entire weeks worth of dreams next to each other, so be patient. Just like anything else you are new at, this might take some time for you to confidently interpret your dreams. Protect your soul, make good choice, and stay in peace (through Jesus).
// Defining Body //
Your body can be defined as simply at it sounds. Basically, it is your flesh, health, biological makeup, and / or physical self. Our bodies have physical limitations and are mortal. If we push our bodies past their limitations we will feel the ramifications quickly. If you run longer than usual your body might ache or if you eat something bad your stomach will hurt. Just as a lot of sugar, caffeine, alcohol, unhealthy food, or simply eating too close to bedtime can affect your sleep and overall health, it can also influence your dreams. I believe you get the point.
Usually, if my dreams are extremely sporadic and all over the place it’s a good sign that it’s a result of something I ate. Things will be grossly exaggerated or morphed. If you have a crazy dream and you ate a bunch of bad food before you went to sleep, the chances are that your odd dream was influenced by your diet. If you have one of these dreams, again, take note of what you ate the day before and you might find a correlation. Either way, if your dream is extra crazy try not to read too much into it. God is the Prince of Peace and if you are feeling an emotion not listed as a fruit of His Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) that emotion is most likely not from God. Either way, Paul describes our body as a “temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:19), so it’s probably a good idea to care for it.
// Defining Spirit //
For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.
For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man
which is in him?
Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the
spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us
by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those
taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.
1 Corinthians 2:10-13 (emphasis added)
I will spend the most time discussing this part of our nature. I believe in our western culture we have an odd stigma associated with this word. Even in the western church, for the most part, the word spirit is a bit mystical and vague in ways. Sadly, to add to our stigma a lot of individuals who say they’re are being led by the “Spirit” do some pretty odd things sometimes. So, hopefully, after this section we will be able to demystify the term and make it feel a bit more concrete.
The dreams I consider spiritual are usually the most profound and life changing. Also, they are usually outside of my ability and comprehension. Dreams that are affected by my body or soul usually come from my subconscious self in some way and are put together by things I have previously seen or experienced. On the other hand, spiritual dreams usually break out of the realm of things I have seen or experienced, and they give me information or an encounter that is outside of my natural realm or ability. The physical self is limited while our spirit, if attached to God, is limitless, so spiritual dreams will have the same feel to them.
To help better understand how the spirit realm can affect our dreams I’m going to define the word spirit three ways: Spirit of Man, Spirit of God (aka. Holy Spirit), and Spirit of this World. In the passage above (1 Corinthians 2:10-16) you will actually see the interplay between the 3 types of spirits I just classified.
1) Spirit of Man
Our spirit is eternal; It lives forever, either in Heaven or Hell. When God made mankind, in Genesis, it says that He breathed into man. In Hebrew, the word for breath is also spirit. Even though our spirit is a bit harder to grasp than the mortal two-thirds of our self it can still drastically affect our body and soul, and vice versa. Our spirit is what Paul discusses in 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24, when he describes our three parts: body, soul, and spirit. Furthermore, our spirit can be affected by the “spirit of the world” or by Holy Spirit.
Our spirit is part of our body but not limited to it. In the Bible, you actually see encounters where Paul talks about a man being in the body or out of the body (2 Corinthians 12:2) or, as in Ezekiel 8:3, Ezekiel is actually taken between heaven and earth. Our bodies are not capable of being in two locations at the same time or surviving in space, but our spirit can. A lot of false religions actually access this realm illegally, using false spirits for translating themselves or to receive information that is not theirs to know.
When I have dreams or encounters that are moved by my spirit I can receive information that I wouldn’t know, but usually those type of encounters or dreams will leave me feeling exhausted. I don’t encourage using your spirit, since it has limitations, and it’s an all-around much better experience when led by Holy Spirit (smile).
2) Spirit of The World
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you
followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at
work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the
cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by
nature deserving of wrath.
Ephesians 2:1-3
The spirit of the world
is described in several places in the New Testament, one being the passage already mentioned from 1 Corinthians 12:2 and another is this passage from Ephesians. The spirit of the world is fallen with no hope of redemption. The spirit of the world involves the demonic, fallen angels, and Satan himself. The fruit of this spirit is fleshly, as defined above, “gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts.” Satan has no self-control and is condemned, and therefore can only create a reality that reflects his own nature.
The dreams led by this spirit are usually fear based or packed with hopelessness. I’ve even had false spirits prophesy over me and my future, and try giving me advice. Sometimes, it was extremely easy to tell that it was a false spirit but other times it was hard, leaving me confused and condemned. Satan loves using facts, like your weaknesses and failures, but he is unable of producing the truth, and the truth will always set you free. In these passages, it’s important to know, that John is describing “truth” as a person not merely facts. Just know, if any dream is not producing freedom then it’s not from the Truth or from the Author of the truth. The Apostle Paul does say that Satan can disguise himself as an angel of light and he says, “our battle is not against flesh and blood but against ... spiritual forces….”
This is why it’s important to know the Bible and have good accountability in your life. Find someone that is safe that you can trust. Make sure they have your best interest in mind and speak the truth no matter what and you want someone knowledgeable of God’s Word. Accountability partners can be friends but I would recommend finding someone that is more like a mentor to you. Personally, I have a wide range of people in my life that I can bounce revelations or dreams off of. It is very rare, if ever, that God will tell you something that He wants just you to know. As said before, the fruit of His Spirit is “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” Test the spirit, if you can, and above all else never allow fear or confusion in.
The best thing to do with these dreams are just to ignore them. Until 2009, all I had were demonic dreams. They were exhausting and left me confused and feeling condemned, like God didn’t love me. As I grew in the revelation of Christ and what He paid for, all of a sudden these dreams became less and less prevalent. God is not the author of death but of life. Once you understand this, testing the spirit becomes easy because you begin to recognize them by the fruit they produce (also discussed in my book, Revive the Night, Chapter 4, Discerning His Voice, Defining His Voice). God produces life and Satan can only produce death.
One of the keys God gave me to overcome these types of dreams is to never write them down. As you soon as I wake from a demonic dream I actively try to forget it. Think about something else or try to fall back asleep. Don’t give in to entertaining the dream even if it’s interesting. Also, a lot of times there will be a really heavy emotion attached to these types of dreams. Ignore the emotion as well, don’t try to overcome it, just ignore it. You don’t need to fight something that is dead. Christ already defeated Satan so we just need to submit to God what He already did. I know how real and overwhelming it can feel but it is all based in deception and lies. Satan tries to get us to believe he is powerful but really he has no authority unless we give it to him. Hence, why he used lies from the beginning, as in the garden, to deceive us. If he had any authority he would of used it instead of hiding, disguising himself, and lying. So don’t give him your authority. Instead, use all your energy to fall back asleep and you will see over time that you get less and less of these types of dreams.
3) Spirit of God / Holy Spirit
For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.
2 Timothy 1:7
Holy Spirit dreams are by far the best! Take everything that happens in demonic dreams and turn it completely upside down. Instead of being overwhelmed with fear your will be overwhelmed with joy. Instead of hopelessness you will be consumed by love, hope, and power. If you believe in Christ, thereby submitting your life to Him, the Bible says in John 14 and 16 that we then have access to Holy Spirit. It says in Romans 8:11, that the same spirit that rose Christ from the dead is doing it’s work in our mortal bodies!
These dreams are completely outside of anything I can do. If I’m having the worst week ever and have a Holy Spirit dream it will not only change the negative emotion I’m under but will even change my week. I’ve had dreams where God will breathe on me, have someone lay hands on me in my dream, or prophesy over me and I will wake up feeling completely different. Sometimes, I will be completely set free from a fear or belief I had been struggling with my whole life! Our own spirit is limited, but, if attached to Holy Spirit is limitless.
These type of dreams can give you information or an encounter that will be outside of understanding. Sometime have even taken me years to process and unpack. I’ve had dreams where someone walks up to me and hands me a book with two titles on it, both of which, I had never heard before. Fast forward, a year later, (why it took me a year, I don’t know - oops) I look up the book title and it turns out it’s actually the name of a book and both titles are on it. The two books are called The Bondage Breaker and Victory Over the Darkness, by Neil T. Anderson. I highly recommend both of them.
Other times, I’ve been given words or phrases to study. On two separate occasions, I was even been given a letter of the Hebrew alphabet to study. In all these instances, I am receiving information outside of my own knowledge or understanding, therefore making the information impossible to have come from my own self or subconscious self.
I’ve been given directions to places I’ve never been before and shown scientific discoveries I never knew existed.
I’ve been told specific information about people I don’t know and others I do know. All of these situations I’ve actually been able to confirm the validity of the information I received by some outside source. The reason I’m telling you so many examples is because I want to expand what you view as possible, and if He did it for me He most certainly will do it for you. I’ve even tested this by praying for friends to have the same encounters and what do you know, they did!
Another great example of a Holy Spirit dream, is when my wife and I were looking to buy a home. We found one we really liked, contacted our realtor and made an offer on the house. Not long after, I have a dream where I am overhearing a conversation by the owners of the home. The owners turn out to be an organization run by men. In the dream, they were talking about how they were not going to budge on the price of the home and how they were going to turn our offer down because the house was an investment property. As they finish talking, I then hear another voice come from somewhere else saying, “pray for their salvation.”
When I awake, I muster up the courage to tell my Realtor about the dream. She is not a Christian, so to say she was intrigued is an understatement. She tells me that she will look up the facts from my dream to see if they match her files on the owner of the home. After some digging and calling around, she comes back to me, astounded. Not only do the owners turn down our offer, but come to find out the house is owned by the local Mormon church, as an investment property. It’s a good thing God told me to pray for their salvation! Now, that was a Holy Spirit led dream. A Holy Spirit led dream will always reflect the a nature of its Author, which is alive, redemptive, graceful and on and on the list goes.
In conclusion, all the types of dreams I mentioned whether led by body, soul or spirit are not inherently bad or good (except for demonic ones). I’ve had body, soul, and spirit dreams that have had good and bad sources or connotations. I’ve even had God dreams with all three influences (body, soul and spirit) in them, good and bad. What I do in those situations is just pull out the good and try as quickly as possible to forget the bad. We have to train our senses to discern what is good and evil, so why not start with your dreams. This entire process is to know God more. He is for you, not against you and He will never leave you nor forsake you. He loves you more than you possibly can ever know and nothing can stand in His way. Just learn and believe those three verses and you’ll do just fine.
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Related Passages:
John 8:44
John 8:32
John 14:6
2 Corinthians 11:14
Ephesians 6:12
Galatians 5:22-23
John 10:10
Hebrews 5:14
Deuteronomy 31:6
Romans 8:31
Romans 8:39
