Dreams
Dreams in the Bible
Genesis 40:8 “We both had dreams,” they answered, “but there is no one to interpret them.” Then Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.”
“I, the Lord, reveal Myself in visions and speak through dreams” (Numbers 12:6).
God visits us in the night and gives our hearts counsel and instruction while we sleep (Psalms 17:3 & 16:7).
I was asleep, but my heart was awake. Listen, my Beloved is knocking… (Song of Solomon 5:2).
Dreams are an important part of many Biblical stories and passages. They offer insight and foresight into the favored decisions or actions that should be made. Many dreams include visions of divine symbols or the Lord, himself, sharing wisdom that changes the course of history. Conversely, some dreams present a clear example of what could go wrong if the way of God is abandoned. Read the list below of biblical verses mentioning dreams and their importance.
“God speaks again and again, though people do not recognize it.
He speaks in dreams, in visions of the night,
when deep sleep falls on people as they lie in their beds.
He whispers in their ears…”
(Job 33:14-16 NLT)
1 Samuel 28:15 Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” “I am in great distress,” Saul said. “The Philistines are fighting against me, and God has departed from me. He no longer answers me, either by prophets or by dreams. So I have called on you to tell me what to do.”
Acts 2:17 “ ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
Daniel 1:17 To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds.
The Man who named the Savior
Jesus (IPA: /ˈdʒiːzəs/) is a masculine given name derived from the name IESVS in Classical Latin, Iēsous (Greek: Ἰησοῦς), the Greek form of the Hebrew and Aramaic name Yeshua or Y'shua (Hebrew: ישוע).[1][2] As its roots lie in the name Yeshua/Y'shua, it is etymologically related to another biblical name, Joshua.[3]
"Jesus" is usually not used as a given name in the English-speaking world, while its counterparts have had longstanding popularity among people with other language backgrounds, such as the Spanish Jesús.
There have been various proposals as to the literal etymological meaning of the name Yəhôšuaʿ (Joshua, Hebrew: יְהוֹשֻׁעַ), including Yahweh/Yehowah saves, (is) salvation, (is) a saving-cry, (is) a cry-for-saving, (is) a cry-for-help, (is) my help.
Joseph's First Dream
The first dream Joseph had while he was sleeping is recorded in Matthew 1:19-25.
"Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took her as his wife, and kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus" (Matthew 1:19-25).
Joseph's Second Dream
After the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, Mary and Joseph stayed there and were living in a house while Jesus was growing into a young child. The wise men had been warned by God to return to their country another way because they might be followed by Herod who had sent out a decree to kill all boy babies up to the age of two. That's when Joseph received his second dream that is recorded in Matthew 2:13.
"Now when they [the wise men] had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Arise and take the Child and His mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him."
Joseph obeyed the instruction he was given in his dream. He took his family and fled to Egypt to fulfill the prophecy found in Hosea 11:1 that God’s beloved Son would be called out of Egypt. They remained there until the death of Herod.
Joseph's Third Dream
While Joseph was in Egypt, Herod died. At the time, the wicked, ruthless Archelaus was ruling over Judea in the place of his evil father King Herod who failed at killing Jesus when he was a young child. Joseph's third dream is recorded in Matthew 2:19–20.
"After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”
With the assurance that those who wanted to kill Jesus was dead, Joseph arose and took Mary and Jesus out of Egypt into the land of Israel known as Canaan.
Joseph's Fourth Dream
God warned Joseph in a dream not to go to Judea, according to Matthew 2:22-23. Instead, he was to take his family to Nazareth.
"But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene."
Mary and Joseph had come full circle from where they started before Jesus was born. Jesus grew up in the small village of Nazareth with a population of only a few hundred. People who lived in Nazareth were despised because the population was mixed, and those who lived there were not well educated. Even Nathanael, one of Jesus' disciples asked Jesus, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" (John 1:46).
Unsealing the Secrets of Daniel
Why Read Daniel?
In the Words of Jesus on the Mount of Olives
overlooking the 2nd Temple.
15 “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’[a] spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. 18 Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. 19 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 20 Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.
When we think of the story of Daniel and his friends’ captivity in Babylon – the fiery furnace or the lion’s den tend to be what we think of. But in reading the first chapter of Daniel, something interesting about the power of a name emerges.
Daniel 1:3-7
The king ordered Ashpenaz, the chief of his court officials, to bring some of the Israelites from the royal family and from the nobility - young men without any physical defect, good-looking, suitable for instruction in all wisdom, knowledgeable, perceptive, and capable of serving in the king’s palace - and to teach them the Chaldean language and literature. The king assigned them daily provisions from the royal food and from the wine that he drank. They were to be trained for three years, and at the end of that time they were to serve in the king’s court. Among them, from the descendants of Judah, were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. The chief official gave them other names: he gave the name Belteshazzar to Daniel, Shadrach to Hananiah, Meshach to Mishael, and Abednego to Azariah.
Why the name changes? What made the boys’ Hebrew names unacceptable to the Babylonians? The meaning of their Hebrew names centered on the one true God: Daniel – God is my judge; Hananiah – Yah has been gracious; Mishael – who is what God is; Azariah – Yah has helped.
Contrast that to their “new” names whose meanings centered on several false Babylonian gods: Beltashazzar – Bel will protect; Shadrach – inspired of Aku; Meshach – belonging to Aku; Abednego – servant of Nego.
Assigning new names was a common court practice in the ancient world. Its blatant intention was to change the entire identity of the bearer until the life matched the title.
Actually, God is the one who originated the concept of a name change back in Genesis. God changed Abram's name to Abraham, meaning Father of many. Jesus followed in His Dad’s footsteps and gave the apostle Simon the name Peter which means Rock.
Historicity of the Bible
The Book of Isaiah was written between 700 and 740 B.C. and it names Cyrus as the Conqueror of Babylon 150 years in advance.
Cyrus the Great respected the customs and religions of the lands he conquered.[14] This became a very successful model for centralized administration and establishing a government working to the advantage and profit of its subjects.[8] The administration of the empire through satraps and the vital principle of forming a government at Pasargadae were the works of Cyrus.[15] What is sometimes referred to as the Edict of Restoration (actually two edicts) described in the Bible as being made by Cyrus the Great left a lasting legacy on the Jewish religion. According to Isaiah 45:1 of the Hebrew Bible,[16] God anointed Cyrus for this task, even referring to him as a messiah (lit. 'anointed one') and he is the only non-Jewish figure in the Bible to be called so.[17]
Book of Daniel accurately describes the Fall of the Roman Empire in 164 B.C.
Daniel Interprets the dream of Nebuchadnezzar
Astral Travel
Edgar Cayce
Jesus Christ is the eventual destiny of each and every soul.
Many individuals have incorrectly assumed that the goal of being in the earth is to simply reach heaven, find enlightenment, or somehow "get out of the earth." And yet, this is a perspective quite different from that contained in the Cayce material. Instead, Cayce believed that as children of God, our mission was to somehow bring spirit into the earth.
"For ye are a corpuscle in the body of God; thus a co-creator with Him, in what ye think, in what ye do."
-- Edgar Cayce reading 2794-3
The law Jesus is referring to is the Old Testament, specifically the 82nd Psalm which asserts that not only are we God's children, but we are also "gods" (to be sure in-the-making), as well. Although some individuals may be offended with the statement that everyone is a part of God, in recent years more and more people working with esoteric spiritual traditions have come to that very conclusion. Unfortunately, oftentimes those individuals who accept this premise have forgotten the appropriate attitudinal stance that should accompany it. In reality, this claim is not so much true as a verbal statement made about oneself. Instead, it is only true as we become god-like toward one another:
For the Master, Jesus, even the Christ, is the pattern for every man in the earth, whether he be Gentile or Jew, Parthenian or Greek. For all have the pattern, whether they call on that name or not; but there is no other name given under heaven whereby men may be saved from themselves.
-- Edgar Cayce reading 3528-1
"When the outward organs of thought and perception are released from their activity, the nerves unstrung, and the whole of mortal humanity lies hushed in quiet slumbers, in order to renew its strength and vigor, it is then that the spiritual organs are at liberty, in a certain degree, to assume their wonted functions. . . . Our spirit body has eyes to see, ears to hear, tongue to speak, and so on. . . . The spiritual organs are susceptible of converse with Deity, or of communion with angels" (Harold B. Lee, "Divine Revelation," October 15, 1952, BYU Devotional).
"In general, recording dreams strengthens the relationship between the Lord and the individual to which the dream is given. As we record inspired dreams, we can more readily see the Lord’s hand in our life and his tender mercies extended in our behalf" (Ryan C. Jenkins, "Quiet Slumber: Receiving Revelation Through Dreams," rsc.byu.edu).
Matthew 2:13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
Numbers 12:6 he said, “Listen to my words: “When there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, reveal myself to them in visions, I speak to them in dreams.
1 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, and visions passed through his mind as he was lying in bed. He wrote down the substance of his dream. 2 Daniel said: “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me were the four winds of heaven churning up the great sea. 3 Four great beasts, each different from the others, came up out of the sea.
1 If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder, 2 and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, “Let us follow other gods” (gods you have not known) “and let us worship them,” 3 you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul.
25 Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one and the same. God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do. 26 The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good heads of grain are seven years; it is one and the same dream. 27 The seven lean, ugly cows that came up afterward are seven years, and so are the seven worthless heads of grain scorched by the east wind: They are seven years of famine.
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
8 In the morning his mind was troubled, so he sent for all the magicians and wise men of Egypt. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but no one could interpret them for him. 9 Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, “Today I am reminded of my shortcomings. 10 Pharaoh was once angry with his servants, and he imprisoned me and the chief baker in the house of the captain of the guard. 11 Each of us had a dream the same night, and each dream had a meaning of its own. 12 Now a young Hebrew was there with us, a servant of the captain of the guard. We told him our dreams, and he interpreted them for us, giving each man the interpretation of his dream.
14 For God does speak—now one way, now another— though no one perceives it. 15 In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they slumber in their beds, 16 he may speak in their ears and terrify them with warnings, 17 to turn them from wrongdoing and keep them from pride, 18 to preserve them from the pit, their lives from perishing by the sword.
The Temple is within Us
Mystics Hid it and Heretics burned for it.
You cannot do what Jesus did - you will always fail. Jesus was not the bosses sun. He was soul that agreed to go for the ride along to a Cosmic event in which one flesh and Blood Human opened a door to a new way of thinking. Jesus had his doubts about the whole thing but the Christ energy did things he himself was skeptical about, like the timing. He thinks he was born too early.
Jesus was a threat to power structures, that is why they had to kill him. His light shined the truth. We are all children of God and no man is above another. This destroys the notion of hierarchy and has continued to disrupt Western Society ever since.
