“In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, while slumbering on their beds, then He opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction,” Job 33:15-16 NKJV.

“In a dream, a vision of the night [one may hear God’s voice], when deep sleep falls on men while slumbering upon the bed, then He opens the ears of men and seals their instruction,” Job 33:15-16 Amplified.

In all the translations of the scriptures I have (and I have many), every time I look up this passage, it alludes to the same basic idea of sealed instruction being given via dreams to us personally.

In the King James Version it says that God “openeth the ears of men.” The Hebrew word translated “openeth” is galah, גָּלָה (gâlâh gaw-law’) which means “to lay bare,” “to reveal,” “to be intimate with,” or “to have intercourse.”

Dreams that come from God have a purpose beyond just the prophetic. Many rabbis see the Hebrew verb for “openeth” as a piel (meaning intimacy) and so would conclude that dreams are a way in which God shares His intimate secrets with us.

Many of the ancient sages taught that during sleep, your soul is active and not influenced by your physical body. It is during this time that The LORD can become intimate with your soul. In such intimacy, you will see what He sees.

The LORD sees the past, the present, and the future. Thus, a byproduct of this intimate time with The LORD is that we get to see what He sees, including the future.

It is commonly understood that if we were to actually see exactly as The LORD sees, we would not be able to endure it, especially in terms of the future.

Therefore, in His mercy, He wraps our dreams in symbols so that we will not be too shocked by what we see. In many cases, He will not even allow us to remember a dream because the knowledge of our intimacy with Him would be too shocking for us to endure.

This is why, as it seems to be in the King James Version, that The LORD will “seal” our instruction.

He will give us a dream, have an intimate moment with us, and then bury what He has shared in symbolism or cause us to forget it completely until an appropriate moment in the future.

In Job 33:17 give a reason why we may be caused to forget — because we would be lifted up with pride! (Joseph’s dream is a good example found in Genesis 37:5)

Or it might be because we’ve had a dream about the future, and we are not yet ready to accept what is in store for us.

There are times, however when our dreams are a caution; a warning as when Joseph, Mary’s husband was warned in a dream to flee to Egypt.

Have you ever wondered why The LORD created us to spend one third of our lives in the state of sleep?

He could have created us without the need of sleep at all if He had wanted. Was there an ulterior motive or reason in His design?

There is a clue to be found in the meaning of the word “dream” in the Hebrew. The Hebrew word for “dream” is chalam. It means “to restore to health.”

This word chalam is telling us that we find our life in our dreams, and it is our dreams that can restore us to health.

This is possible if we realize that our dream state can be an intimate time with The LORD. Our bodies may be unconscious, but our souls are very much awake.

With our bodies at rest and not distracting us, The LORD can use our sleep time to share His heart with us. It is a time of communion with The LORD and a renewing of our purpose and focus.

Nearly one third of what we have as scripture today came through the auspices of dreams and or visions. Dreaming therefore is a time of communication with The LORD and receiving His wisdom, insight, strategies’ as well as comfort and refreshing.

Not all dreams however are from God. There are such things as nightmares. We must learn to discern and understand that sometimes dreams are nothing more than the imaginings of our own subconscious, while other times they can be the expressions of intimate times with The LORD.

Perhaps sometimes nightmares can be the result of our soul conversing or being influenced by the enemy.

Consider this question: before you go to sleep, what do you fill your soul with? Do you watch lewd and violent television? Do you read a novel about dark subjects?

Remember, at night, your body may be in repose, but your soul does not sleep. It continues to remain awake.

What did you feed your soul and give it to dwell on before you went to sleep?

Let me give you a life altering challenge!

“And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets,” 1 Corinthians 14:32.

Here is the challenge: Before you go to sleep at night, pray and cover yourself with the blood of Jesus. Then, command your spirit to listen to and worship The LORD as you sleep.

You can set the stage by meditation on a scripture or by singing a song of praise and worship to Him before you fall off to sleep.

As you make this a lifestyle, you will find that often you will be awakened in the middle of the night, worshipping and praising The LORD.

At other times, The LORD Himself will come to you to share His secrets and His heart.

 

For His glory,
~ Bruce Allen

---

Dr. Bruce Allen, is the founder of Still Waters International Ministries, PO Box 1001 Chewelah WA, 99109 United States. It is Bruce’s passion to see the Body of Christ awaken to their destiny in this hour by equipping them to hear God’s voice and access the reality of the supernatural in every day life.

Back to Top