Seeing the Voice of God: What God Is Telling You through Dreams and Visions (12 page)

In a dream, in a
vision of the night
,

When deep sleep falls upon men,

While slumbering on their beds,

Then He opens the ears of men,

And seals their instruction.”

Job 33:14–16, emphasis added

This makes it sound as though a vision of the night is a dream and that both occur while slumbering on the bed. The world may never know. Just take comfort in the fact that if even the prophets of old did not know proper definitions, it is okay that you do not either.

Translations

Depending on which Bible version you are reading, the word for “translation” might be
trance
. That is right, trances are in the Bible. But they were not and are not hypnotic trances such as we will discuss in chapter 10. These are bona fide “pick you up in one spot and take you to another location” expeditions. Some biblical examples of translations are:

Ezekiel—Ezekiel lifted up to Tel Abib (3:14–15), Jerusalem (8:3), Babylon (11:24) and Israel (chapter 40)

Acts 10—Peter falls into a trance and then has a vision (also 11:5)

Acts 22:17—Paul’s vision of the Lord in the Temple through a trance

2 Corinthians 12—Paul describes being taken up into the third heaven

A couple of those are also listed under the preceding visions section, but that is because the author/prophet also used the word
vision
, thus showing us that sometimes visions happen during trances (while being taken to another location). It is hard to nail down a Hebrew word for this phenomenon. One example of how it was handled is in Ezekiel 40:2: “In the visions of God He
took me
into the land of Israel” (emphasis added). Once again, the seer was taken somewhere (translated supernaturally) during a vision. But the New Testament Greek gives us a bit more clarity, as in the definition that follows, and we already put it to good use in Acts 10, 11 and 22:17.

ekstasis
—1) any casting down of a thing from its proper place or state, displacement 2) a throwing of the mind out of its normal state, alienation of mind, whether such as makes a lunatic or that of a man who by some sudden emotion is transported as it were out of himself, so that in this rapt condition, although he is awake, his mind is drawn off from all surrounding objects and wholly fixed on things divine that he sees nothing but the forms and images lying within, and thinks that he perceives with his bodily eyes and ears realities shown him by God. 3) amazement, the state of one who, either owing to the importance or the novelty of an event, is thrown into a state of blended fear and wonderment.
2

Now,
that
is a definition! I have experienced this
ekstatis
before (especially #2 and #3), which is where we get the word
ecstasy
. My husband, however, has a translation story that still leaves my mouth watering, in which the Lord “took him” to Italy to baptize him in His Holy Spirit. My Spirit baptism happened in my den on grubby carpet! His translation—which occurred while he was on a business trip to Canada in 1994—had much to do with what we now see was a commissioning to minister to the people of Italy. We are now connected to Italian missionaries
there, such as Gaetano Sottile in Rome, but it all began with that translation from a ritzy Canadian hotel room to a craggy cave in Italia, where Chris Smith became a different man.

There in that cave, Chris saw people, angels and the Lord Himself. And they all knew him. He “came to” on his bed praying in tongues—something he had never done and was afraid to do—and then he slid off the bed and crawled to the bathroom to look in the mirror and see if his physical appearance had changed. He said he was afraid he was going to look like Charlton Heston as Moses, with platinum hair, but instead he looked just like himself. Same old Chris on the outside, but a different Chris on the inside. Little did he know that ten years later, he would be pastoring a Spirit-filled church and funding missionaries in countries all over the world, including Italy. All because in 1992–1993 he started raising his hands and saying, “More, Lord.” In hindsight, those were very dangerous prayers.

Hebrews 11:5 (
KJV
) says, “By faith Enoch was
translated
that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had
translated
him: for before his
translation
he had this testimony, that he pleased God” (emphasis added). In this example, the Greek word for
translated
is this:

metatithemi
—1) to transpose (two things, one of which is put in place of the other), to transfer, to change, to transfer one’s self or suffer one’s self to be transferred, to go or pass over, 2) to fall away or desert from one person or thing to another.
3

Visitations

Whereas a translation involves you supernaturally visiting another place, a visitation is when a heavenly entity or being
visits
you
.

About fifteen years ago, I was in prayer one night in my bedroom, praying about my health. Many times in my life’s health journey I have felt I narrowly escaped death or was trying to, and this was one of those nights when I was reminding
God (and my own heart) that He said He would not forget me and that I was dependent on His protection. Suddenly, on my knees in prayer, I lifted my head and saw I was entirely encircled by a massive pair of angel’s wings that reached all the way down to the floor. It was like I was inside an igloo, an igloo made of cupped angel’s wings.

I had always read about “pinions” in Scripture, but now I could see them up close in each feather of each wing. God also disclosed three things He was giving me as I knelt there, things that began to manifest very quickly after the experience and are still blossoming today. Since that open vision, I have never once doubted my bodily protection. Another argument for the power of visions in your Christian journey. I suppose this angelic encounter could be classified an open vision, too. Or maybe even included in our chapter 10 section “Seeing Angels and Demons.” Now you see why the seers in the Bible had a hard time categorizing their visions. In the end, does it really matter?

Some more visitations in Scripture are:

Daniel 8—the archangel Gabriel visits Daniel (also 9:21–23)

Daniel 10—the archangel Michael visits a fasting Daniel and promises relief

Matthew 17:1–9—Peter, James and John see Elijah and Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus

Mark 16:9–12—Jesus visits Mary Magdalene and others after His resurrection

John 20:26—Jesus appears to the disciples after His resurrection

Acts 12:8–9—an angel rescues Peter from prison

Acts 22:6–11—Paul encounters Jesus on the road to Damascus

Revelation—the entire book of John’s visitations, visions and revelations

I have included here the Mount of Transfiguration story, where Jesus takes Peter, James and John and they rendezvous with Moses and Elijah. This encounter is a perfect example of categorization difficulty. Was it a vision? A translation? A visitation? Probably all three. Can you imagine seeing Jesus standing there talking to two dead people, not to mention that they were two of the greatest prophets the world has ever known? But what I find interesting is that Jesus did not just walk into this party. He had to be transfigured first. Transformed. The message here is that we, too, must be transformed (spiritually) before we can experience this heavenly realm.

I will never tire of telling you that you do not need a visitation, a vision or a dream to believe the Bible. Even if you experienced every supernatural encounter and translation possible, afterward you would still be right back living in your same old shoes and having to choose to walk by faith or not. But God, in His mercy and at His choosing, will occasionally decide to open your eyes. You will never be the same afterward, even if it only happens to you once.

In closing, here is a poem that I wrote in 2005, while spending the night in an ICU waiting room with a dear friend, Stacey, while her husband, Bobby, was hospitalized. I was writing a poem a day that year, so that day’s got documented. I had a waking vision, and in it, I saw a phone number. I felt the Lord saying I needed to call it and encourage the person to keep moving forward and not give up, and to remind the person to come to Jesus for his or her every need. Trouble was, I could not remember the last digit. I narrowed it down to three numbers and decided to call them all. Boy, am I glad I did. “You don’t know me, but I awoke to a vision of your phone number this morning. . . .” I delivered the message to all, and all three were grateful. One even confessed that she was about to take her life. Thank God for waking visions!

Stepping out to make a call

Will I touch one? Will I touch all?

A number “seen.” No, two. No, three.

I’ll phone them all. We soon shall see . . .

© Laura Harris Smith, May 4, 2005

PRAYER

Let’s pray out loud together:

God, open the eyes of my heart right now. At the times of Your choosing, I ask You to speak to me in visions of all kinds, whether they be open, waking or night visions. I submit to what You want and have made up my mind not to be afraid of any good and scriptural gift You want to give me, including visitations, translations or even sighting heavenly beings. I trust You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

IMPARTATION

Right now, I pray the words of the prophet Elisha over you from 2 Kings 6:17: “And Elisha prayed, and said, ‘L
ORD
, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.’” (Or if you are one of my sisters in the Lord, I pray, “Open her eyes that she may see.”) I also declare over you the promise of spiritual gifts made to you in 1 Corinthians 14, including “discernment of spirits.” Not just to discern the presence of angels and other spirits, but to be able to know for certain when the Holy Spirit is near, who is the most important Spirit deserving of your focus. I break fear off you in Jesus’ name. Scripture says if you ask God for bread He will not give you a stone, and that if you ask Him for a fish He will not
give you a serpent. As you ask Him for these things here, you will not receive a counterfeit. Knowing God led me to write this book, and knowing He led you to read it, I impart to you every good gift He has given to me and ask that He multiply those gifts to you this very day. (Now open your hands, shut your eyes and receive it.)

I have had a dream that troubles me and I want to know what it means.

Daniel 2:3
NIV

I
t is with great sobriety that I compile this chapter, knowing that for years to come, people will turn to it and use it to make life decisions. Groggy-eyed risers will wake from a dream, turn to this chapter and try to make sense of enigmatic symbols that they hope will unravel their distresses. Long after you have finished reading
Seeing
the
Voice
of
God
, chapter 7 is what will keep it on your nightstand or a nearby shelf for years down the road, and that is a lot of weight for this little author and Kingdom nobody who still cannot believe God uses her to teach about these things she once doubted existed.

Seers—those who often dream and/or see visions—must stay connected to the Body of Christ (and I want the image burned
into your mind of a beautiful pair of eyes plucked out and sitting on a desk, far from both the muscles that empower them and the blind body that needs their sight). We will talk more about that connection in chapter 10, but as you seek interpretation for your dreams and visions here, just know this chapter is not intended to replace the godly counsel of the local shepherd in whose field God has called you to feed. Remember: Seers are sheep, too. And every sheep needs a shepherd.

These pages also cannot replace prayer following a dream or vision, because dream interpretations without God’s help get flaky fast. To use this chapter like a slot machine would be to reduce it to new-age witchery, old-school psychology or the countless psychic manuals available today for dream interpretations. I once visited what seemed like a harmless secular dream interpretation website, and the first two symbols proposed that dreaming of biscuits indicated pent-up emotions and that a woman dreaming of pickles meant she was unambitious in her career. Seriously?

Remember that the best interpreter is the Holy Spirit within you. The same symbol could speak different things to different people, and only you live in your life’s story and know for sure. For example, once at one of my classes on dreams and visions, I poured salt in each person’s palm and asked them to share what it meant to them. One woman said, “We are the salt of the earth.” Another said, “Elisha healed the waters with salt.” The man next to her mentioned his high blood pressure. Yet another said, “Let your speech be gracious, seasoned with salt.” Finally, one woman with a terrified look on her face exclaimed, “Lot’s wife!”

Another time, I had a dream with three symbols: a friend with the last name of Brothers, Johnny Carson and my iPhone. I told Chris, “Mark my words, something will happen with one of my brothers that will involve my iPhone, and it will happen tonight.” (The only thing Johnny Carson brought to mind was
The Tonight Show
.) I prayed and forgot about it. Turns out, that very night I got involved in a detailed, very personal text conversation with someone who I thought was my brother-in-law because I had an old cell number for him in my phone. The man, who now had that number, wound up being a stranger who called to say he was interested in meeting and getting to know me. I was really alarmed. But I knew that God’s warning dream had prompted me to pray, and therefore I would be safe.

The next day I told my family about it. My sister-in-law, Susan, exclaimed, “So Johnny Carson means ‘tonight’?”

I said, “Only to me, not to everyone.”

I was glad she asked, because it made me mindful about explaining here that God will use symbols unique to the experiences of the dreamer. You will dream plenty of dreams that no dictionary can assist you with because the symbols mean nothing to anyone but you. For instance, my brother is a successful banker. When God drops him down in the middle of a dream unrelated to him, He knows I will understand that it is a financial dream. Likewise, when my earthly father appears in a dream where he normally does not seem to “fit” (like with a group of my friends he does not know), it usually symbolizes my heavenly Father.

If one of the definitions that follow does not seem to fit your dream or vision, then seek God and phone a Christian friend who interprets. I often find that God will give one person the dream and another person the interpretation because it keeps us connected and interdependent, fostering family.

Also, these interpretations that follow will treat your symbols figuratively and not literally. In other words, if you dream that someone has died, you will find herein what that means symbolically (death to a dream or spiritual death, for example), but it is always a good idea to go ahead and also pray literal prayers of protection over that person’s life. It is an airtight, winning combination.

I have also included a reference list for numeric symbolisms in Scripture. It follows the dream symbols section of the
dictionary. Many people do not believe that God is concerned with numbers, but my answer to that is, “There’s a whole book in the Bible called Numbers!” I am strict with my interpretations of numbers and take them only from Scripture. In other words, if the number 5 symbolizes grace, I do not believe that 10 indicates double grace. The number 10 has enough literal beauty of its own without us needing to manipulate something better out of it.

Keep in mind that sometimes a symbol can be used positively or negatively. For instance, let’s say you see a snake in your dream. Snakes represent evil and demonic influence, but a snake was also raised up on a stick in the desert by Moses and used as an instrument of healing—which John 3:14 says foreshadowed Jesus being raised up on the cross for our healing. Which is the right interpretation for your dream? Satan or Jesus? Either would be spiritually grounded. At that moment, you must consider your soul (your emotions). If you are fearful, then the dream was from the enemy. If you are at peace afterward, then it was from the Lord, even if it was exposing a demonic influence at work. And even when I awake under the fear of the Lord, I am not afraid of God but am consumed with reverence and total peace.

Dream interpretations vary from dictionary to dictionary, and that can be confusing. But my friend Stephanie once said something insightful concerning this. I questioned if a particular interpretation of a symbol she had read in a book was the one she should go with, and her answer was, “When God gave me the dream, He knew I had this book and would be turning to it, so I believe He used symbols and interpretations I could find in it.” I have never forgotten that, and I hope this book of mine will be your “go-to” book that God uses for you as you interpret.

Dream Dictionary

What
you
will
find
: I felt the need to include a Bible verse for each symbol I give, but sometimes Scripture does not include
a modern symbol. In that case, I relied on decades of interpretations that have come through fasting prayer. If the symbol is literally in Scripture, then I list in normal type at least one verse where it is found. If it is not, then I give a tried-and-true, universal interpretation and then list a verse
in
italics
to help you with the issue the symbol introduces, or at least to show you that someone else in Scripture was in the same boat. The same italics rule applies if the symbol is in Scripture but the interpretation has a modern relevance and is not in Scripture.

All 1000+ symbols are supported by God’s Word, though. Some come directly from His
logos
(written Word), and some come from His
rhema
(spoken Word), supported by His
logos
. A good example of this would be the symbol of a rearview mirror. Although not in Scripture, a rearview mirror is a clear indicator from the Lord in a dream that someone is focusing on the past and is in danger of not moving forward. Alongside that definition, I would place
Philippians 3:13
in italics since it advises us to forget that which lies behind and look forward to that which lies ahead.

What
you will not find
: You will not find the word
feeling
in this dictionary. Secular symbol dictionaries will say this-or-that symbol reveals how you are
feeling
about this-or-that situation. That is not my goal. You already know how you are feeling about your situation. What you need to know is what God says about it. My symbols are intended for you to pray with and find faith. For instance, “buried alive” symbolizes sudden helplessness. Whereas a secular dream symbols dictionary would say this reveals that you are feeling overwhelmed by a current situation, I would say it is God revealing the enemy’s intent to overwhelm you, but that you can
and will
experience the resurrection power of Jesus to rise up and overcome, if you will pray. Who wants to reaffirm misery? This dictionary reaffirms your faith.

Symbols and Interpretations

Note
:
For
Scripture
references
,
unless
I
recommend
a
specific
Bible
translation
1
for
a
particular
symbol
,
you
can
use
the
translation
of
your
choice
.

abandoned car
:
a stalled or neglected move of God (
Acts
 
17:28a
;
Isa
. 
66:20
)

actor:
someone playing a role (1 Kings 14:6
NASB
; 2 Sam. 14:2; Prov. 13:7)

adoption:
the gift of family, coming into God’s family (Rom. 8:15; Eph. 1:5)

adultery:
spiritual affair/idolatry (James 4:4a); pornography (Matt. 5:28; Exod. 20:14)

aging:
spiritually exhausted if aging too soon (Ruth 4:15a); wisdom (Deut. 32:7)

air force:
high-ranking spiritual warfare in the heavenlies (
Eph
. 
1:20–21
;
6:12
)

airplane:
huge move of God—holds many and occupies the heavens; favor (
Isa
. 
60:8–10
)

airport:
waiting for takeoff, departure, deadline, runway for ministry (
Isa
. 
40:31
)

alarm:
a wake-up call to action (Num. 10:5)

alcohol:
controlled by something other than God; foolish (Prov. 23:19–35; Rom. 14:21)

alligator/crocodile:
lurking danger; jaws of death (Ps. 9:13
NLT
; Lev. 11:29
DARBY
)

altar:
a place of sacrifice or the laying down of one’s will (Exod. 20:24)

ambulance:
emergency spiritual or physical intervention (
Ps
. 
71:12
)

amusement park/fair:
carefree fun, but also amusement (
Exod
. 
32:25
)

anaconda:
see python

anchor:
hope; fixed, steady (Heb. 6:19a)

angel:
messenger (Job 33:23); protectors, guardians, ministering spirits (Heb. 1:14)

ant:
a hardworking attitude, diligence (Prov. 6:6–8)

antenna:
a call to pay closer attention to God and to tune in (
Prov
. 
1:8–9
)

antiques:
something old or outdated (
Isa
. 
42:9
)

apple:
favor (Ps. 17:8); temptation (Gen. 3:6)

apron:
serving others (John 13:4–5); miracle prayer cloths (Acts 19:12)

aquarium w/fish:
a church or ministry, we are to be fishers of men (
Matt
. 
4:19
)

ark:
refuge; salvation during life’s storms (Gen. 7:1 23)

arm:
God’s might and power (Ps. 89:13; Isa. 62:8)

armor:
promised protection by God for all Christians (Eph. 6:11)

army:
an organized group with a cause, godly or evil (Joel 2:11; Eph. 6:12)

army tank:
opposite of a move of God; a corporate move of the enemy in war (
2
 
Cor
. 
10:4
)

arrow:
children (Ps. 127:3–4); poisoned arrows are grief (Job 6:2–4); lies (Jer. 9:8)

ashes:
repentance (Luke 10:13); mourning (Esther 4:1)

aspirin:
see medicine

assassins:
demonic forces with a special mission to kill and steal (
John
 
10:10
;
Ps
. 
38:12
)

astrological signs:
pagan influences/witchcraft (Jer. 10:2–3; Isa. 42:8
NLT
); see zodiac

athlete:
a competitive spirit, good or bad (1 Cor. 9:24–26)

ATM:
mass production; unlimited financial access (
Phil
. 
4:19
)

attic:
a high place of sacrificial prayer and worship (
2
 
Chron
. 
33:17
)

attorney:
intercessor, one who mediates through prayer (1 John 2:1; Rom. 8:34)

ax:
the end of a thing; pruning (Matt. 3:10)

babies:
spiritual infants (1 Cor. 3:1; 1 Pet. 2:2); birthing new things (
Isa
. 
42:9
)