Monday, September 26, 2011

How Does God Speak?

For me, one of the funnest things I've gotten to do in my lifetime is start to learn God's language. God is Spirit, and so he speaks to us in a spiritual language. Makes sense, right?

He speaks to us through a language of pictures, symbols, types and shadows. He uses signs, dark sayings, puns, riddles and wordplay.

God has always spoken to people through dreams. One third of the bible deals with dreams, visions and interpretation.  So if this is God's chosen way of communicating, we should probably make an effort to understand the language.


Imagination-station

We all have an "image center" or imagination. If I say to you, "picture in your head waffle cone with pink ice cream and a cherry on top", you are able to form an image of that in your mind. Well, just as we can form an image in our imagination, so can God. He uses this image center to speak to us in dreams.


Head-movies

Dreams are basically a succession of pictures, dialogue, and events that play out during a sleeping state of unconsciousness. It is always amazing to me when I think of the millions of dollars and the time it takes for directors and producers to create a movie. Especially to think that I belong to a God who can create a customized movie, with more vibrancy, detail, and heart, every night, for every single human being (who knows, maybe dogs and cats too!) without so much as batting an eye. That is the kind of truly creative God we have!

Parable-examples

Just as Jesus would always tell a story to illustrate a message, so God continues to use parables and stories to illustrate a message for dreamers.

Mark 4:33-34, "And with many such parables He spoke the word them as they were able to hear it. But without a parable He did not speak to them. And when they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples."

The disciples didn't get it, they need the parables to be explained. Many times in the bible the disciples tried to come up with the meaning of these parables on their own, but they were always off. It wasn't until Jesus came and explained it that they finally got it. 

When they were off by themselves, they asked about the parables. Jesus told them, "You've been given insight into God's kingdom—you know how it works. But to those who can't see it yet, everything comes in stories, creating readiness, nudging them toward receptive insight." (Mark 4:12)

Why so secretive?

Our natural man (our souls - meaning our own minds, by the power of our own thoughts, will, and emotions) cannot understand the things of the Spirit.

Amos 3:7 says, "Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants and the prophets."

Numbers 12:6 says, "...If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make myself known to him in a vision, I speak to him in a dream.""

So, the more we seek to understand this secret spiritual language of God, the more we are able to unlock the hidden meanings of our dreams. Why does he conceal the meanings of dreams in this mysterious way? Just to make it difficult? The answer is simple - He does it so that we will seek for the answer, and in so doing, we will seek after Him.

Proverbs 25:2, "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search a matter out".

Jeremiah 33:3, "Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know."

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Dream App!

Forget your dreams? Not anymore! John Paul Jackson has produced a new iPhone application called DreamLoggr. It allows you to record your dream from the night before as a .wav file, log your dream by title and key details and recall dreams by keyword search. Now there's really no excuse... you can grab a phone and mumble your dream into it before rolling over and going back to sleep! $1.99 on iTunes.

http://www.dreamloggr.com/

 

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