Dream Interpretation: My 5 Keys
KATIA ADAMS • May 19, 2018
Exploring the Meaning of Your Dreams
Over the last few years, I’ve realized that God is using my dreams to speak to me. I’m sure He’s been trying to get my attention through them for a lot longer than that, but I’ve only just woken up to that reality! I’ve been asked a few times how I figure out if my dreams are from God or just the random workings of my subconscious? Also, if they are from God, how do I decipher what they mean?
So, I thought I’d jot down a few pointers from my own experience in understanding my dreams. Please bear in mind that this post is just me throwing out some things that I’ve found to be helpful and true for me, but is by no means a conclusive teaching on dream interpretation! None of this is an exact science (so be wary if anyone tries to tell you it is) and I have found that dream interpretation is more a journey of feeling out the way God speaks uniquely to you than a clear-cut method that you can memorize and then be good to go! Even so, I trust that this may prove helpful in teasing out how to interpret your own dreams.
1. Pay attention to vivid and lingering dreams
I’ve found that when God is speaking to me, the dreams are incredibly vivid and linger with me throughout the day. I wake up thinking about them and can’t shake them off. It’s almost like they get stuck in me. This is not 100% full-proof, but it is a signpost for me to weigh up the dream a bit more and see if it might be God.
2. Look for symbolic imagery
I’ve learned that there is imagery in my dreams – a specific dream-language if you will – that helps me tease out if there really is an intelligible meaning behind the often weird or jumbled up things I see. I’ve learned that the things I see in my dreams rarely have a literal meaning, but rather specific people or scenarios often represent something that I normally associate with them.
So, for example, houses or buildings tend to be about churches. Transportation vehicles tend to be about ministry. If things are repeated in my dreams, often it is an indication of things about to happen in an accelerated timeline. If there is a dream about my hair (strange I know!), often it is about my unique strength or gift. You can look up online dictionaries for dream interpretation or pointers from people like James Goll
or John Paul Jackson. These can be helpful, but I want to reiterate – dream interpretation is in no way an exact science, and most importantly, you are going to need Holy Spirit to be speaking to you about what He’s trying to tell you!
3. Ask God about the people who show up in your dreams
From spending some time tracking my dreams now, I’ve realized that when people who are completely out of the blue (people who I haven’t talked about/thought about/seen in a while) pop up in my dreams, God may be using them to get my attention. Sometimes the dreams have significance for them and need to be shared or prayed over.
4. Recognize the emotions from your dreams
I’ve learned to pay attention to the emotions that are stirred up in me from the dream. If my dreams elicit fear or anxiety for me, then either they are demonic, and I can completely ignore or rebuke them, or they may be Godly warning dreams which I can pray into. What I know for sure is that dreams that bring fear, if they are from God, don’t want me to stay in that place of fear but are intended to move me on into faith.
5. Know when to share your dream with others
I’m coming to a place of understanding that not every God-dream I have is meant to be shared!
Sometimes we are too quick to involve others (whether they are in the dream or not), but I’m realizing that often God is sharing something with me because He wants to mobilize me to pray, not necessarily to talk!
So there you have it, a few random thoughts from me on dream interpretation! In reality, the number one most important key for dream interpretation is to be walking in relationship with Jesus.
The more we come to know Him, the more we will recognize His voice and decipher His heart through our dreams. He is not a tick-box list or formula that we can learn. He is living and breathing and wants to take us into a journey of knowing one another.
So next time you have a crazy dream, ask Jesus about it and then maybe think through some of the pointers I’ve suggested too. One thing I’m convinced of – He IS speaking, and He WILL teach us to recognize Him clearly, so we can rest assured that as we lean on Him faithfully, He’ll draw us deeper into all He has for us.
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