Dreams and the Judaeo-Christian Tradition
It is a continuous theme throughout the Holy Scriptures that the Lord reveals to humanity, often, although not exclusively, in sleeping dreams. In the Judaeo-Christian tradition it is commonly accepted that God has frequently used dreams and visions to guide humanity, instruct the prophets, and to prepare the way of the Christ.
Modern Christians accept this as part of the story of our religion, but these phenomena are not acknowledged as a continuing reality in our day-to-day lives. Within the parameters of the abstract and thinking mind (that is to say, intellectually), modern Christians understand that this premise is true in a historic sense. However, there seems to be little inclination to apply this commonly accepted historic truth of our religion to the reality of our lives in the modern world. We therefore find ourselves in a situation where it is little recognized by the vast majority of contemporary Christians that these inner experiences of the Lord are as available to us today as they were to the ancients. We dream just as they did, and God speaks to us today just as He did to the prophets, disciples and apostles in Biblical times.
As Christians, we know from the teachings contained in the Holy Scriptures that theoretically the Lord can appear to us at anytime. As a practical matter however, it is important to understand that divine spiritual beings can and do appear before individual human consciousness on a daily basis. In fact, the Lord and His helpers are with us always! (cf. Matthew 28:20) However, for some mysterious reason we do not apprehend them and only occasionally do we acknowledge their immanent presence.
Yet, unbeknownst to most, we do experience them when we sleep. For it is in the nighttime hours when we fall asleep to our earthly lives and awaken to the spiritual planes that we are most receptive to the presence of the Lord and His helpers. This is when the entirety of the spiritual realms unfold before us, as in a vision. This is the time when the Lord and His helpers appear before us and reveal their instruction.
With this in mind and in the context of the teachings of Jesus Christ, the writings of the Holy Scriptures, and over two thousand years of human experience, our fundamental premises are these:
- Your sleeping dreams are authentic spiritual experiences which are inherently Christian in nature.
- Dreams reveal divine wisdom, this is the ‘living water’ that flows from the Christ and His Heavenly Hosts to you. (cf. John 4:14; John 7:38)
- Within this divine wisdom you will find guidance and instruction that is addressed specifically to you.
- As an individual Christian living in the modern world your ability to access this divine wisdom is, with proper training and modest discipline, exactly the same as that experienced in Biblical times by the prophets, the disciples, and the apostles.
This is what we believe and practice. Please visit our website to learn more about sleep and dreams, and the ways that they are related to the teachings of the Christ and the Christian religion. There you will be able to explore these profound, rewarding, and little known dimensions of human spirituality in more detail. You are invited to submit a dream for interpretation and thus begin your exploration the deeper levels of your consciousness, the inner presence of the Lord, and His nighttime revelations.
In our next several posts we will elaborate on these topics as we seek to articulate a coherent and comprehensible description of this vast and mysterious area of study for the contemporary Christian.