Over the years, people often ask me how I’m able to understand dreams and interpret their meaning so quickly.

Even though I’ve interpreted thousands of dreams, I didn’t know how to answer them at first.

So, I began to study the Bible for how God speaks through dreams and visions because I wanted to be able to train others to understand dreams for themselves.

God’s symbolic language

“For God does speak — now one way, now another — though no one perceives it.” Job 33:14 NIV.

According to Acts 2:17, God is pouring out His Spirit in prophecy, dreams and visions. And now that we have the Holy Spirit in us, we can understand the different ways that God speaks.

Even though Jesus didn’t interpret people’s dreams, He began to teach them — and us — how to understand God’s metaphoric, symbolic language through His many parables.

Jesus demonstrated how symbols can have different meanings from dream to dream. In one parable, a seed represented the Word of God, but in another, the seed represented faith.

If you think of a dream like a story or night parable, then you can get to the meaning more quickly by discerning the context and a few more elements of the dream.

5-Step Method to Understand Dreams

“Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?” Mark 4:13 NIV.

Understanding God’s language of parables or symbols is so important that Jesus told many parables (see Matthew, Mark and Luke) and even interpreted the meaning of quite a few.

After studying these, the Lord showed me 5 simple steps to understand the meaning of our dreams.

1. Who or what is the dream about? Are you the main character? Are you participating or are you observing in any way?
2. What’s the context? Is it at your work? Your ministry? School or family?
3. What’s the tone? Is it positive or negative? Is it light or dark? Dark dreams usually aren’t reality, and they often reveal the plans of the enemy.
4. Are there any common themes? Watch for common themes like flying, falling, teeth coming loose or having a baby. Notice any repeated themes or symbols, or even recurring or similar dreams you may have over time.
5. Break the dream down to it’s simplest form. Pull out three or four main points, like in the plot of a story.

Here’s an example: In the dream, you are at work (context) on a stormy day (tone).

You start to give a presentation when you notice that your teeth (common theme) are coming loose! Others in the room notice, and you feel embarrassed (more context). And then you wake up in a cold sweat.

Meaning: Things might be stirred up (storm) where you work or over something you’re working on. Don’t let this distract you from getting the wisdom (teeth) you need before you go public with your project or ideas.

Do you see how the 5 steps walk you through a story that you can understand?

Understanding our dreams is one of the many ways that hearing God’s voice through the Holy Spirit can open up the heavens over your life!

 

Blessings,
~ Doug Addison

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Doug Addison is a prominent conference speaker captivating audiences with clean stand-up comedy and high energy prophetic messages, also shared on TV, radio and the Internet for over a decade. He brings laughter, fun and a unique prophetic style while empowering people to transform their lives, discover their destiny and understand dreams, tattoos and piercings. His powerful messages stay with his audiences long after hearing him.

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