Are dreams coded messages from the spiritual world?

Last night our daughter came into our bedroom in the dead of the night and woke us up. The freaked out girl told us she had a nightmare and she was afraid of going back to bed.

“Go back to your bedroom,” I said, “and let me put on my bathrobe; I’ll be with you in a second.”

“I dreamed that there were dead people and then somebody started knocking on my bedroom window,” Pudd’ng narrated, as we all knelt down around her bed, held hands and prepared to pray.

The fact that Pudd’ng felt it necessary to get out of her bed and come and tell us about the nightmare means that she knew it was important. Something told her that this was not just another ordinary dream.

I used to think that dreams were just that; mere dreams. I have since come to learn that most dreams are coded messages from the spiritual world. I have also learned that there are dreams that I need to speak against and cancel, and others that - because they are for my good - I need to let them be and ask God for grace to handle the process and eventuality. Best of all, I’ve learned that God doesn’t give us dreams to scare us, but to prepare us.

Opening gates to dark forces

Some time back, I told Pudd’ng to stop watching a number of television programmes that bordered on the occultic and demonic.

“What’s wrong with these programmes?” she protested. And I tried, as best as I could, to let her know that, by watching such programmes, she was opening gates in her mind to dark forces. Which may return to haunt her in her dreams.

“But the mind does not have gates,” she said.

“How do I say this?” I hemmed and hawed. “They are not gates like the physical burglar-proof gate that we have in our apartment.”

“But they are more like invisible gates that let in content that you consume. If, for instance, you consume good content, you’re positively affected.”

I could tell that she could not still get it. She thought that the content on TV just begun and ended at entertainment. She, like other kids and many adults, do not know that there is more to some of the programmes on TV than meets the eye.

Raising a spiritually-responsible generation

When I pray for my family before we go to bed, I always ask God to be with us in our dreams. The Bible is full of stories of God speaking to people in their dreams.

But unfortunately, in many of our churches, pastors do not have a clue about what happens in the spiritual world, and are mostly consumed with believers’ shillings and lack of spiritual sense.

I have come to realise that there is no standard formula to interpret a dream. Which is why so-called “dream dictionaries” are snake oil. True, some common dreams have a common thread and may have a general theme. A common dream - such as, dreaming of being in one’s former school - may, to some indicate nostalgia while to others it may denote the spirit of backwardness, especially if one is on the verge of being catapulted to the next dimension or level.

Most, if not all dreams are deeply personal in nature. Your pastor may help you to interpret it or, because of your ignorance, he may take you to the cleaners. Which is why, when Pudd’ng told us her dream, we did not put our pastor on speed dial. Instead, we did what a disciple of Christ is supposed to do; sent us some “knee mail”.

In this and other matters, we are teaching our daughter to always take responsibility. We are teaching her that she has the power in her hands, knees and mouth. We are teaching her that, in spiritual matters, she should not throw her brain and common sense out of the window, but that she is the captain of her own ship and destiny.