I've had a hard time of it lately: I've been taking a summer course and I'm getting married in less than a month and I have some anxiety issues and the stress from everything lately has made it worse. In a desperate state of mind last night, I prayed to God after reading how he sent dreams to Joseph -- I know his situation was a lot more important than mine! I asked God to send me a dream that would show me what I needed to do to stop being such an anxious, sad, stressed person. It seems that when I pray awake, I'm not always open to God's voice, so I thought maybe I would be forced to listen if God sent me a dream while I was asleep. My reasoning was that maybe what God wanted to say to me was something I wouldn't like.
I did dream last night. I had a horrible nightmare. It involved my fiancee cheating on me claiming that lots of good people cheat -- ridiculousness. I went into a desperate panic, realizing that I had to stop the wedding, but that I was more heartbroken than ever in my whole life. After waking up in a panic, I went back to sleep only to continue the same dream. What a horror! That hardly ever happens to me.
So now, I am deeply disturbed and wondering if this horrible dream was from God. My fiancee is a very faithful man, and has never cheated on me. But it seems that I am always arguing with him lately, and I worry.
It may be useful to add that I don't dream every night, but when I do it is usually a nightmare.
What about you? How do you know if God has sent you a dream or if it is just a figment of your own imagination?
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Comments (18)
If you and your fiancé have been having some difficulties lately it is no wonder you had such a terrible dream about it! I think this dream was likely more related to that then being a message or a warning sent by God; He would not do such a thing to you.
Have you talked to your fiancé about the dream? Make sure not only to tell him about the dream and how it left you feeling but also share with him how grateful you are that you know it was only a dream and that in the real world you don't have such fears. Disarm the uncertainty and horror of your nightmare by bringing it out of the darkness and into the light of truth.
@Ancient_Scribe@xanga - I agree.
I doubt it was from God, @Laughin_Kathryn. I can't think of any reason it would be. Unless your fiance is secretly cheating on you, then I wouldn't take it too seriously. I've had dreams where I cheated on my husband (yikes! :( ) but of course, that definitely was not from God. If you are looking for discernment before you get married, as long as your fiance is a Christian and you feel called to marry him, there is no need to put stock in dreams.
It sounds more like you are being engulfed by your fears. This happens to many people. How does God conquer their fears? God's perfect love casts out all fear. Read your Bible whenever you feel overcome by fear and allow the Holy Spirit to speak God's love to you. Ask God to reveal what is driving your fear and search His Word for answer. God's truth will conquer your fear. His perfect love will never let you down. That's a promise.
You can also discuss your fears with your fiancee. Ask him to pray with you. This can actually bring the two of you closer and be good practice for marriage, being united in God.
My experience with dreams from the Lord, not that it happens all that often, is that when I wake up I have a sense of His presence, like I do after a special prayer or immersing myself in the scriptures. Even then, I think about what I experienced, what it might mean to me, and then pray to ask if my thinking is correct. If it is correct, I feel a sense of His peace and love, a connection with Him. If it is not from Him, the feeling is emptiness or things as usual. A loving Heavenly Father will always let us know if something comes from Him, if we prepare ourselves and ask Him with humility, sincerity, and a determination to do His will.
@apb102088@xanga - there is no need to put stock in dreams.
@TheyCallMePaulNow@xanga - It sounds more like you are being engulfed by your fears.
Agreed.
You should listen to your dreams and do everything they say just in the off-chance that one of them is from God.
Laughin_Kathryn@xanga I've learned there are only a few ways for me to know my deepest self...perhaps that sounds odd, but honestly, I've discovered more of who I more truly am only slowly over the course of my life.
One way is through dreams. Dreams can be a good way to get a glimpse of what's going on inside me without any filters...right, I don't have control over my dreams.
So I hear you asking what does this dream mean...you seem intuitively aware that it offers to tell you something of yourself. Is this dream from God? The God I know seems way into me knowing myself more fully...in fact, I did a word study on the English word Holy and discovered the best synonym for it is 'authentic.' So is this a bonafide dream from God? I think you know the answer...and perhaps a spiritual director could be helpful for you too (do a web search on what that is if you haven't heard the term).
You asked God to "show me what I needed to do to stop being such an anxious, sad, stressed person." You dreamed that the one who loves you and pursues you (your fiancee) betrayed you and claimed lots of good people don't follow 'the law'. You panicked and 'had' to break off or flee from the relationship feeling heartbroken (presumably b/c your vulnerable heart had been wounded and you wanted to stop the pain).
With that slightly different perspective on your dream maybe you can look at your life history in other significant relationships like with your father, mother, God, or other significant friendships. Has there been a betrayal? And if so, how did you respond at that time? Do you feel responsible in some way. Anxiousness in my experience comes when I'm tempted to take responsibility for something I've no control over. So is there something you're trying to control that is too big a burden for you to carry?
I pray that offers you hope...and encourage you to trust your intuition and your heart...they are good and worthy!
I don't think that dream meant anything. Maybe you're under a lot of stress with making the final touches on your wedding and finishing up your class.
If it is a nightmare, it is more than likely a dream from the enemy, rather than God.
You're stressed because of the upcoming wedding and the enemy will try to play off our anxieties, however big or small they may be, and amplify them as much as possible to scare us and draw us into doubting ourselves and God.
However, it's good that you have the awareness that it is not a message from the Lord. You can put on the armor of God and pray that you might give all your fears to God. It's cool because the enemy is trying to draw upon your fears, but they are really just giving you awareness of something to pray for, which is not very beneficial on their part. God is amazing and can use messages that are not from Him to show you something about your life. He is pinpointing some part of our life that He wants to improve.
One thing that you can pray for is perfect love. Pray that you might bind any fear, stress, or anxiety and then pour out perfect love over your room, your life, your marriage... because perfect love drives out all fear (1 John 4:18). And really imagine it happening... because what do we have to fear when we have God?
About me, I have a lot of background in dream ministry, with emphasis on prophetic dreams. It was my first ministry. Any questions, let me know. Hope this helped :)
People have spiritual experiences in their dreams quite often. This is in fact why the Bible speaks of them so much. But also with these dreams we deal with our human subconscious issues. When you have a spiritual experience within your dreams they will be in full living color. You usually will wake up and say "WOW, that was dream, it felt so real."
Love is almost perfectly described in 1 COR 13 for you. The only thing from perfectly describing it is because it says that love is slow to anger. Love does not anger, humans do. Anger is another emotion and that is why love does not anger.
Get married angel. You do not need a dream or God to validate your choice. Someone cheating on you is a fear. Remember that if you truly love someone and they cheat on you they have only hurt themselves and that you, being in love with this person you should want them as happy as possible. If they want that type of lifestyle of cheating, just leave and tell them you love them and that this is not how you choose to live. Jealousy is not love either, at least not love for that person, but rather for yourself. You will be a better person for being, or worse case scenario, having been married.
May good thoughts fill your heart and mind and the hearts and minds of all you come into contact with,
love,
justmarty
I beleive dreams definatly have a meaning and there is some truth in them, I love dreams, I can dream about anything I want, things i shouldnt be dreaming about are the best!! Dreams are good, just not nightmares x
@Ancient_Scribe@xanga - Yes, I agree that it did not seem to be the character of God to reveal a truth in such an upsetting way. Talking about the dream with my fiancee did help. It turned out to just be another nightmare...I think I have more lately due to stress.
@TheyCallMePaulNow@xanga - Thank you, that was really good advice.
@brokenleaf@xanga - point taken. ha!
@mandakimmi@xanga - Thank you especially for the reference to 1 John 4:18. Your words were very, very helpful and sounded like a balanced view.
@AMIGOS_WE_THREE@xanga - Thanks! I'm going through with the wedding nightmares or no :)
God always gives me dreams to confirm something or tell me something...for example, He gave me 3 dreams to confirm my call to South Korea when the churches I had visited in Japan in 2007 (short mission trip) prayed for visions or dreams about where I was supposed to go long-term, when I returned back to the states. Also, the devil I believe can give us bad dreams.
@Laughin_Kathryn@xanga - Dear L_K,
I was married to my best friend, the person that made me a better person, one who I had a genetic relationship with that was not of this earth for 14years. She beat me home about 10 years ago now, checking out with a 2 year old and 5 year old. Luckily we were prepared with a Great life insurance policy and a great will/trust (us lawyers sometimes do the right thing) and I would advise EVERYONE getting married to do the same.
You can get cheap forms via the internet for the will/trust and go get a life insurance policy. This allowed me to retire and spend EVERY day with our sons. It is cheap and worth the peace of mind well before it was ever used.xo,justmarty
And visit Costa Rica on your honeymoon. I'll take you white water rafting on one of the best rivers in the world.