God Speaks Through Dreams

My First Prophetic Dream

The first time I realized God was speaking to me in a dream, I woke up perplexed — but now it makes perfect sense. In the dream I was about five months pregnant. But I wasn't married and had no reason to be pregnant. I was trying to deny it, but my midsection was clearly swelling and it wasn't because of too many tasty empanadas from the corner Cuban café. In my dream, I asked a trusted friend what she thought. To my dismay, she said, "You're definitely pregnant!"

To say I was none too happy would be a monumental understatement. A flood of thoughts rushed at me in my dream state. How will I get all my work done with a newborn baby to care for? I'm too busy for this! My life is challenging enough as it is. This is certainly no time to complicate things with a baby! Still, I knew there was no way of escaping this. I had the heavy sense that I really didn't have a choice in the matter. This baby was coming in about four months, whether I liked it or not.

Then I woke up perplexed. I'm not spiritually dense, so I understood the overarching meaning of the dream. God was birthing a new thing in my life. We were a little more than halfway through the incubation process, and I needed to align my will with His in a hurry. My fellow prophets chimed in as to what this "baby" could be. Some said it was a new ministry. Others said it would ultimately be a good thing, though times were likely to get rough during the next few months. They were all right.

It's interesting how God gives His prophets different perspectives and at times they seem almost to contradict one another, but in the end you see how they all fit together. The messianic prophecies are a good example. But I digress. Or do I? It's been almost a year since I had that dream, and since then I've had others about the baby as both an infant and a toddler. The Lord recently brought these things to my remembrance while I was reading about Mary, the human mother of Jesus, and a messianic prophecy she received that changed her life. And there's a lesson in it for us all as we approach new beginnings.

You'll remember when the angel Gabriel, often seen delivering messages to God's people, found Mary in Nazareth. Gabriel told Mary she was highly favored of the Lord and blessed among women. Then Gabriel delivered his prophetic message: "You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus" (Luke 1:31 NIV). Mary was perplexed and asked the angel how it was possible as she was a virgin.

Imagine the flood of thoughts rushing through Mary's mind. She wasn't married, so turning up pregnant would be more than a little inconvenient. Unlike my superficial complaints about finding time to get my work done with a newborn's diapers to change, Mary's prophetic revelation could have cost her everything. Not only was she in danger of losing Joseph, the love of her life, she could also end up on trial for fornication, which was reason enough to be stoned under Mosaic law. Mary probably imagined many things about her fate.

Then Gabriel answered Mary: "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35 KJV). Gabriel gave her two other insights. He told Mary that her cousin Elisabeth, who had been barren, was pregnant in her old age. He also told her all things were possible with God. At this news, Mary probably remembered Abraham and Sarah's miracle baby and began to put her faith in God.

"Mary responded, 'I am the Lord's servant. May everything you have said about me come true'" (Luke 1:38 NLT). Mary displayed willingness and obedience to allow the Lord to use her however He chose. I don't believe He would have used her if she had not been willing and obedient. God will not violate our own will. That's why, after I awakened from my pregnancy dream, my concern wasn't so much about receiving a revelation on exactly what I was birthing but about lining up my will with God's will in the matter.

Let's get real. Birthing anything, from a baby to a ministry to a business, is hard work. It changes your life. It forces you to become more disciplined. It challenges you to go deeper in your relationship with God to find the grace you need to survive the spiritual stretching you will no doubt experience. Indeed, birthing new things demands many adjustments. That's why so many people have aborted the call of God on their lives. It's not that they couldn't yield to the Spirit of God and work with Him to birth something new. It's that they were not willing.

I believe God is birthing new things — and He needs people who are like Mary, willing and obedient to allow the Lord to do what He pleases for His glory. Notice I say for His glory. Mary gave birth to Jesus not for herself, but so that the sin of the world could be taken away. Whatever the Lord chooses to birth through you — a song, a book, or an entire ministry — remember that it's not about you. It's about the people who need what you are carrying. You aren't carrying the Savior of the world, but you may very well be carrying something that will save people a lot of pain, bring people greater understanding of God's Word, or give people the hope of fulfilling their purpose and destiny in Christ. Isn't it worth it?

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Is God really speaking to you in your dreams? Could the Lord Almighty be warning you of things to come while you lie in bed at night? Is it possible the Creator of the universe is giving you innovative ideas while you sleep? Simply stated, yes. God has spoken to people through dreams since the book of Genesis, and He is still sending messages through dreams today.

Just consider some famous dreams throughout history that have advanced society. God created the atom — the basic building blocks of anything and everything — but Niels Bohr, the father of quantum mechanics, discovered these tiny particles during a dream. Bohr said the revelation that laid the groundwork for the atomic model was birthed through a dream of sitting on the sun with planets "hissing around on tiny cords." Bohr's dream-state discovery paved the way for our understanding of chemistry and physics, which led to scientific and technological breakthroughs, such as lasers, night vision goggles, and digital cameras.

Likewise, Albert Einstein pointed to a dream he had as a teenager that he meditated on his whole life. "He dreamt that he was riding a sled...