Everyone dreams. It's scientifically proven that each person dreams a minimum of six times per night. Not everyone remembers their dreams. There are many ways out there to help you recall dreams. I will give to you a short list of techniques that have been the most helpful to me. There are many more out there, and if you are a creative person, you may be able to develop your own way of stimulating your recollection of God’s sleep parables.
One step that we can take in order to remember dreams is to ask God to wake us up before our alarm goes off. Studies have shown that the things that grab your attention as soon as you wake up will cause you to not remember your dreams. It’s commonplace for us to wake up and immediately start our days. The alarm goes off, the dog barks, a baby cries and we find ourselves suddenly grasping for vapors that dissipate and are scattered into the wind in a moment’s notice. Brandi and I have found that asking the Holy Spirit to bring back those dreams to our recollection almost always causes the dreams to return. The trick is to not try to force it to come back but to wait on the Lord. By doing this you increase your capacity to remember dreams as well come to the end of yourself so that Holy Spirit will have more access to your heart which in turn will allow him to use you in greater ways.
Another Key to remembering your dreams, and quite possibly the most important way, is to show God that you value your dreams. Dreams are a gift from God, and if it is a gift from God, which means it is a pure and perfect gift and it is worth taking time to learn how to use it, understand it, and apply it to your life. In your mind, you may be thinking, ‘Well, I don’t have that gift. After all, people are born with gifts or they are not, right?” The answer to that mindset is a resounding, WRONG!
Spiritual gifts are not something that you are merely born with and cannot access unless you were born with it. A spiritual gift is something that you may be born with, but it is also a gift that you are able to gain through the Holy Spirit. Spiritual gifts, as we learn from 1 Corinthians 12, are manifestations of the spirit. In 1 Corinthians 12:1 the word we translate as “Spiritual Gift,” is pneumaticos in Greek. Currently, a pneumatic engine is something that is operated by air or gas that causes a reaction and powers something to operate. In the same sense, we are the engine, the Holy Spirit is the power that allows us to operate like a pneumatic engine by operating through us and we in Him. In the Strong’s concordance it is referred to as the realm of the spirit, or an invisible, unseen sphere of the spirit realm where the Holy Spirit operates and gives gifts, imparts faith, etc. He is the gas that explodes through us with his dunamis Power allowing us to operate as well oiled (anointed) engine performing the will of God.
A lot of people get hung up on thinking that it is the person that has a spiritual gift that does the interpretation. That would make dream interpretation entirely of the person and spiritual gifts would only be able to manifest if a person had a gift. This mindset puts the emphasis on the person, not on God. It’s a slippery slope that leads to unintentional idolatry; this mindset has been the mindset of the church by-and-large for quite some time. However, the bible does not teach us that a person is responsible for a gift but, rather, 1 Corinthians 12 very clearly tells us that it is the spirit that is responsible for the gift. 1 Corinthians 12:4, and 12:9 tells us that the gifts of the spirit are charismata or undeserved gifts. You can’t earn it, but you can learn to utilize that aspect of the Holy Spirit anytime you want. Strong’s concordance 5486 is charisma. This Charisma is defined not only as an undeserved gift but also as favor from God. Strong’s states that these spiritual gifts divinely enable a believer to share God’s works with others; it is the Spirit-empowered service to the church to carry out God’s plans for his People.
Since the spirit is the one manifesting the gifts, then That spirit that you have access to that is living inside of you can manifest any of those gifts so that you may do anything at all within God’s power (which is infinite I might add) to accomplish his will for his people. If you feel like you don’t have that gift, or you can’t do that thing then go ahead and get out of God’s way! Let the Holy Spirit not only operate in you but through you as well! Something so simple will have a profound impact on your life. Whether you are interpreting a dream, interpreting an unknown tongue, or praying for the sick you have access to all those gifts anytime you need them!
Take the emphasis away from you having the gift and put it on the Holy Spirit operating through you. Take time to learn about not only interpreting dreams, but to learn about healing, and how to operate in the prophetic, or how to love someone like Christ has loved us. Don’t tell yourself you can’t interpret a dream, rather, tell yourself Holy Spirit can interpret a dream through me, and believe it!
When something is given to you as a gift, if you appreciate it, you take it out and use it. You will put effort into figuring out how it works, and you will be so excited to show off this new gift that you will show it to everyone and take it everywhere. Whenever I get a new phone it’s all I can talk about. I bring it up in conversation just to brag about the cool things that it can do. Dreams are the same way for me. When I have a dream that I know is God, I share that sucker with every single person that I can.
I feel the same way about dream interpretation. I bring the topic up as often as I can, and whenever someone says, “what do you do for work?” I tell them that I am a minister, and I interpret dreams. That generally sparks up a conversation about dreams someone has had which inevitably leads to an interpretation that shows them the reality of God in their dreams.
The whole reason for being gifted in dreams, and rightly interpreting is to destroy the work of the enemy. 1 John 3:8 tells us that the reason that Jesus was made manifest was to destroy the works of the devil. That is precisely what a good dream interpretation will do. It not only plants a seed, but it tears down strongholds that the enemy has been fortifying for years.
The next way to go about remembering your dreams is to Pray. I have had numerous people come to me and ask me; how do they start having dreams? I always say, “Find the value in a dream, and pray and ask God to give you a dream.” A fair portion of the time the next day they come and say, “I had a dream!” Sometimes they don’t have a dream the next day, but I encourage them to pray again and press in. Luke 7:7 tells us “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Just because you don’t get an answer right away doesn’t mean that God isn’t hearing you. Just because you don’t get an answer right away doesn’t mean you don’t dream or God doesn’t want to talk to you, it means to press in.
Now let’s take a moment. If you’re reading this, you’re probably interested in learning how to interpret dreams and utilizing this gift of the spirit right now since you are now aware that you may. Pray this prayer, “Holy Spirit, please activate in me your gift of dream interpretation. I receive it. I believe that I am now able to access you anytime to interpret dreams.”
Prayer is a very powerful Component in remembering dreams as well as interpreting dreams. The more you pray, the more you hear God’s voice. Praying persistently takes away from the power of your flesh and adds to the spiritual value of your life. Often, I find myself praying in the spirit, and I see images of people, and hear words, or see angels and the list just goes on. I have learned that this type of prayer helps to soften the hardness of a person’s heart, opens your eyes to see, and clears the spiritual ears out so you may hear.
The value of prayer time is far greater than what the average church teaches. Spending time in prayer also opens you to spending time with the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit is the one responsible for recalling all things and getting to know him and have a more intimate relationship with him will most assuredly help you not only to remember a dream but to understand the dream as well.
A tried and tested means of recalling dreams is to set a pen and paper beside your bed, and as soon as you wake up begin to write down what you saw, felt, etc. It doesn’t have to be the whole dream. You can just have a small fragment of a dream, and just by beginning to write it down you may be able to recall the entire dream or at least more bits of it. It’s important to remember when doing this that you don’t have to focus on the all the details in the dream, but rather, it’s important to have the dream written down in its simplest form, especially if you have a hard time remembering dreams.
For instance, you don’t need to write down the there was a cup, it was white, it had a handle, it was normal, there was no writing on it, it had this, it had that… That is too much. You may very well find yourself getting caught up on the details and completely forget the dream if you pursue the minute details too long while trying to record your dream. You could just as easily say, there was a white cup.
You might also try telling yourself that you will have a dream. I have heard a preacher while teaching about coming out of agreement with sickness and telling your body what it will do, say, “Speak to your body! Tell it to line up with the word of God.” Matthew 18:18 tells us that what you bind on earth is bound in heaven, and what you loose on earth is loosed in heaven. Simply put, that begins with you as a person. You are made of flesh which is made of earth. What you bind in yourself you have bound in heaven. If you spend every day saying, “I don’t dream, I haven’t dreamed in years.”
The sad state of truth is that if you are speaking out that you don't dream then you have bound yourself on earth, and in heaven. That means you have stated as a fact in yourself, and in the heavens that you do not dream, and as in such a manner you will not dream until you release yourself from that curse. Begin to speak out blessings over your life, and your dream life and you will start to reap the fruit of what you have sown. This principle can be utilized in any aspect of your life, and you will see the difference in a very short while.
Try getting a good night’s sleep. People with insomnia tend to not sleep very well. Likewise, they also tend to claim insomnia as theirs and as we just established, speaking those kinds of things over yourself will cause the cycle to continue. If we were to look at what insomnia does you may be able to deduce that it is not of God. It steals your sleep, it destroys your ability to rest, it kills your ability to dream, it does not produce peace on a regular basis. These are all calling cards of the enemy of God.
It is not easy to fall asleep some nights, but if you pray diligently, and begin to speak out that you fall asleep easily at night, then you will see the fruit of those blessings come into your life. Sleep is where dreams happen. Getting a good night’s sleep helps to alleviate stress and will help you to be able to remember your dreams. Stress in life is a huge deal breaker when it comes to dreams. It not only takes away your ability to sleep, and to dream, it also will cause you to have weird dreams.
A very good way to avoid stress in your life, or to eliminate stress in your life is to stay focused on Jesus and spending time with him. Philippians 4:7 speaks of the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your heart. The Greek word for heart in this verse is Kardia. Much like Psuche, it is speaking of the spiritual aspect of a person. It’s similar to saying your heart, versus saying your soul. Kardia is your inner life, inner man, your intentions, your mind, and thoughts. Kardia also means your physical heart. Jesus will not only protect your soul, and your thoughts and give you peace, but he will also protect your body and give you peace and rest as well. Staying inside the sphere, or realm of Jesus Christ will keep you in that place of peace of rest. Remember that Ephesians 2:6 tells us that we are seated in heavenly realms with Christ Jesus. That means our peace and rest comes from the spirit realm, just as our supernatural dreams come from the spirit realm, and are not just internalized thoughts, and Random firings of the brain. To leave that place of peace with Christ is to leave that spiritual realm, and transition back into the earthly realm.
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