Discover the Meaning of Your Dreams | Prophecy, Dreams, and Visions Season 2

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: One of the reasons that God speaks to us in symbolic language in our dreams is because God desires us to discover the meaning of the message. Father God, we just ask you to give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of you and open up our spiritual ears to be able to hear you speaking to us in the night. This is such an important subject. When we do a survey in scripture, it's amazing to see how often the Lord has spoken to his people through their dreams at night. Consider this. If somebody lives to the age of 75 years of age, 25 of their 75 years of life will have been spent sleeping if they sleep an average of eight hours a night. And of those 25 years in which they slept, six of those 25 years will have been spent dreaming. Some people don't think dreams are important, but I want you to know, dreams affect us. Because when we dream, it's actually as if we're living through those experiences. We feel them. They leave an imprint on us. God oftentimes will help shape us through our dreams at night. They're such a mystery. This is something that scientists can't figure out. They can study dreams, but they can't explain where dreams come from. I mean, perhaps some of you have paid close attention to your dreams, and you wonder, where in the world did that come from? It can't be explained by something that you read or something that you watched on television. It just is so real. And the characters in the dream sometimes have such personality, you wonder, where did it come from? I want you to hear me loud and clear. It's important to pay attention to your dreams. You see, as I said in an earlier broadcast, when we're awake, we're oftentimes very fixed on our material surroundings. If we're at work, for example, we're very engaged with the work at hand. If we're driving an automobile, we're very focused on the cars that are in front of us, on stop signs, on the lights, etc. But when we're dreaming, our soul is loose from the material world and it's in that state that Hashem, which is a Hebrew way of saying the Lord, will speak to his people. Now, one of the things that's interesting about the nature of dreams is that oftentimes the language of dreams is similar to the type of language that Jesus used when he spoke to his disciples in parables. In other words, oftentimes when we dream a dream that's from the Lord, the message that God communicates through the dream will not just be so straightforward that it's right in front of your face. Sometimes the message will come to us in a dream in symbolic form, even as Jesus communicated many revelations to his disciples not straight on, but through parables. Let's look at an example of how God speaks to us in symbolic dream language from the book of Genesis, the book of Bereisheet, chapter number 37. Hear the word of God. Then Joseph had a dream. And when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. He said to them, "Please listen to this dream which I have had. For behold, we were binding sheaves in the field. And lo, my sheaf rose up and also stood erect. And behold, your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to my sheaf." And then Joseph continued in the ninth verse. He said, "Now he had still another dream and related it to his brothers and said, 'Lo, I have had still another dream. And behold, the sun and the moon and 11 stars were bowing down to me.'" Of course, we know, because we've read the whole story, that Joseph was prophesying how eventually his parents and brothers would come down and bow down to him. We remember the story, Joseph was sold as a slave into Egypt and then got promoted to being second in the land. And when there was a famine in Canaan, Joseph's brothers, and then they brought the dad to Egypt where Joseph was living, they bowed down to Joseph. They didn't realize it was Joseph. They thought it was just an Egyptian because Joseph was clothed now in Egyptian royalty. And when Joseph's brothers arrived, Joseph called them into a room and then revealed who he was to them and they bowed down to him. Joseph dreamed that this was going to happen years and years before it did. So Joseph's dream about the sheaves bowing down to him and the sun and the moon and the stars bowing down to him was about what would happen years later when Joseph's brothers left Canaan to go to Egypt to buy grain where Joseph was reigning. And when they met Joseph in Egypt, they bowed down before him. Why did God not just show Joseph that eventually his brothers and father would bow down to him? Why did the Lord show Joseph that the sheaves were going to bow down? Why did God show Joseph the sun and the moon and the stars were going to bow down? Beloved, one of the reasons that God speaks to us in symbolic language in our dreams, and one of the reasons that Jesus communicated so much through parables, is because God desires to engage us with himself to discover the meaning of the message. In other words, if God just always communicated straight on, direct language, and we never had any question as to what he was saying, we would have the answer and we could be tempted just to move on. But when we know God has spoken to us, but we're not quite sure what it is that he's meaning to say, it requires us then to seek him for understanding. And because it drives us to seek him, the relationship between the Lord and us is strengthened. God wants to involve us in the discovery. Jesus said, "Seek and you shall find." And so oftentimes when I have a dream at night, the understanding of what he is saying is not instantly clear. But I'll have a strong sense that the dream that I had last night was from the Lord. And it requires me then to write it down and begin, listen now, to pray about it, to begin to say, "Lord, I think that was a dream from you last night. Father, I really believe that was from you. Help me to understand what it means." And I'll go through all that day and the next day inquiring of the Lord, "Lord, what were you saying? What does it mean?" And because the dream has forced me to become dependent on Hashem, which once again is just a Hebrew way of saying, "Bless the name, bless the name of the Lord." Because the dream forces me to become dependent on Hashem, it actually draws me deeper into relationship with him. And that's the point. God wants us to be dependent. Listen to the book of Mark, chapter number 4, verse 33 through 34. And he said, "How should we picture the Kingdom of God? Or by what parable should we present it?" And then he said, "It is like a mustard seed, which when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil, yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches, so that the birds of the air can nest under its shade." Now listen to what the next verse says. "With many such parables he was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to hear it. And he did not speak to them without a parable, but he was explaining everything privately to his own disciples." In other words, Yeshua was relying on parables so much because he was both revealing and concealing truth at the same time. He was revealing truth in a limited way in order to fully understand the truth that he was revealing, the disciples had to come to him and inquire, "What did you mean?" Many of us, for example, when we hear the parable about the sower and the seed, we instantly know the interpretation. But that's because the disciples inquired as to the meaning of the interpretation, and it's recorded for us now in the scriptures. But when the disciples first heard the parable about the mustard seed or about the seeds being sown, they didn't know the interpretation. They had to go to ask Jesus, the scripture says, privately, and then Yeshua would explain it to them. I want to encourage you. Really ask yourself each morning when you get up. Say, "Did I dream anything last night?" You see, don't be offended when I say this, but a lot of the problem that some of us are having is simply that we're lazy. We're not paying attention to our dreams. Remember I quoted for you in one of the earlier episodes in this series how in the book of Job, Elihu, one of Job's counselors, said, "God speaks once, yea twice to save man's soul and to give them instruction." And he said, "And the Lord is doing it while men are fast asleep in their bed." And people, he said, are not paying attention. You see, there's so much more that many of us could be gaining in terms of how to walk in this world, in terms of direction, in terms of strategy, in terms of counsel, in terms of warning. We could be walking in so much more revelation knowledge, beloved one, if we were paying better attention to our dreams at night, and some of us are not gaining more revelation. The truth is, because we're just lazy. We wake up in the morning. We don't take time to really inquire of the Lord. "Lord, did you speak to me last night in my sleep?" "Lord, help me to recall anything that you said to me." And then immediately going and writing down whatever we can remember about our dreams, and then taking the time to pray. A lot of people, they just don't want to take the time. It really is spiritual laziness. They don't want to take the time, they don't want to make time, they don't want to put in the effort. And so God is speaking to them, and they're losing the benefit they could have had because they're not taking their dreams seriously. But remember what I said, beloved one, to disregard your dreams is to disregard God.
Dustin Roberts: You're listening to Discovering The Jewish Jesus, and Rabbi Schneider will be right back. But first, I'd love for you to stay connected with us by signing up for Rabbi's Seeds of Revelation newsletter. Each week you'll receive a powerful devotional direct from Rabbi, along with other ministry updates including when Rabbi will be live. It's a simple way to stay uplifted and informed. Go to discoveringthejewishjesus.com and click Stay Connected today.
Dustin Roberts: Deception is rising and many messages today, they're not the full gospel. But Rabbi's teachings come directly from scripture, declaring truth with boldness. He's uncompromising. And if this ministry has blessed you, would you consider becoming a monthly partner today? To continue reaching the world with God's word, we need committed supporters just like you. So to become a monthly partner, call us at 800-777-7835. And now, back to Rabbi Schneider.
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: I remember some time back as we think about how God speaks to us in dreams. I remember realizing how God gives even direction and divine strategy for where to move next in life through dreams. We've talked about so many of the ways that God speaks in dreams and I'm moving on now to another element that the Lord can address in your life in regards to hearing his voice in your sleep and that is, he can give you direction and strategy. Listen to the book of Matthew, chapter number 2, verse 19 and 20. Now this is speaking concerning Joseph and him knowing what to do with the baby Jesus. But when Herod died, because Herod was ruling in the land at the time of Yeshua's birth. But when Herod died, behold, 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 into the land of Israel, for those who sought the child's life are dead." And so Joseph, first of all, through a dream, he knew when to take Yeshua into Egypt. And then through a dream, Joseph learned when to take Yeshua back into Israel. God gave him direction and strategy. And again, the Bible, the Torah didn't tell Joseph when to take Jesus out of Israel into Egypt, and it didn't even tell Joseph the details of what that would look like. But the angel spoke to Joseph in the dream. And that's how Joseph knew how to take care of the baby Jesus. The point is, beloved, God speaks to us about details through our dreams that sometimes we can't find the answer for specific problems in the detailed sense of the word, in the scriptures. That's why we need to be complete both the written word of God, that's the foundation for all faith and contact, but we also need the Ruach Kodesh, the Holy Spirit that can speak to us about specific details that sometimes the word of God doesn't address. I shared with you in an earlier broadcast. I moved to Columbus, Ohio 20 years ago because God showed me to move there in a dream. God gives strategy for life in our dreams, just like he did Joseph. Let me give you another example. Years ago, I had a dream. And in this dream I was in a room, it was about 20 feet long and approximately eight feet wide. There was a couch in the room against one of the walls. Sitting on the couch was a middle-aged man. Next to the man was a middle-aged woman. And then I was also sitting on the couch and my head was leaning on the shoulder of the woman who was in the middle. It was kind of like David, and David said in the Psalms that he had stilled his soul by leaning against his mother. So in the dream I'm leaning on this woman, and there was just a deep sense of security. It symbolized in the Psalms the security a child has in his relationship with his mother. So I have this deep place of security, and then I say to the man on the couch, "What do you think of Jesus?" Then suddenly, the dream shifted. I found myself in a very similar room. I was sitting on the couch once again. This time, there was a woman about 25 years old standing also in the room. And I said to this 25-year-old woman, I said the same thing, "What do you think of Jesus?" And she said, "Well, I know he said a lot to the world and to the church, but he never said anything to me like about being boyfriend-girlfriend." Bam, then the dream was over. And her language was so strange. It was so something that I would have never thought someone would have said that I knew, right after that dream, that God had just spoken to me. In other words, I was able to be aware of the fact that I just had a dream. Immediately I got out of my bed, thought about the dream, prayed about the dream, and wrote it down. And here's what I learned. Number one, the Lord gave me a specific question to use when sharing the gospel with somebody. He showed me to use the question when I want to introduce the gospel to someone, specifically, "What do you think of Jesus?" Because if you say to somebody, "What do you think about Jesus?" they might give you like an intellectual, heady answer. But if you say to somebody, "What do you think of Jesus?" it's a heart question. They're going to begin to share with you what they really believe. And I've heard so many types of answers, I can't even begin to tell you all the different answers I've heard. But when they answer, it helps you to know where they're at spiritually. And hearing their answer, you'll be able to know how to move forward in presenting the love of God to them. So, what do you think of Jesus? The first thing I learned from that two-phased dream was a specific witnessing question to use. I actually train people how to witness, how to share the gospel and using that question as a lead in. That specific question, "What do you think of Jesus?" But here's the other two things I discovered. Number one, in the first phase of the dream, when my head was leaning on the woman's shoulder, it was from that place of security that I was able to begin to witness to the man. And I believe the Lord was saying to me there, "Many men do not share their faith because they're insecure. They're afraid they won't be looked at as macho if they begin to tell another man about Jesus." And the Lord was sharing with me, "I want you to challenge men to be secure and share their faith with other men." Then the second phase of the dream as I began to inquire, "What does this mean?" The Lord was showing me that a lot of people when they think about Jesus, they just think about the fact that God so loved the world. The girl said, "Well, I know he said a lot like to the world and to the church." "But he never said anything to me like about being boyfriend-girlfriend." And what the Lord was showing me there is, "When you share my love with people, they need to understand that I love them," listen now, "individually, personally, and specifically." And my love for them is so intimate that I've called them in Revelation chapter 19 to the marriage supper of the lamb. I learned from that dream that when I share the love of Jesus with people, people need to understand, it's not just a message for the world, it's a message for them individually, specifically, and personally. Beloved, God loves us so much, and he wants to speak to us more. Listen to him in your dreams. I promise you, he's going to lead you and you'll be blessed.
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: In the Gospel of John chapter 6, we read the story of how the 5,000 that had followed Jesus were hungry and needed something to eat. They began to ask, "Well, what do we have to feed so many?" One of the disciples said, "Well, one young lad here has five loaves and two fish." Jesus said, "Bring them to me." Yeshua blessed the five loaves and the two fish. Supernaturally, all 5,000 were fed and there was even food left over. Beloved, I believe that when you and I give to Jesus what we have, he supernaturally multiplies it. Let's be faithful to him with our finances. He has promised that what we give to him would come back to us pressed down, good measure and running over into our lives. If the Lord is feeding you through Discovering The Jewish Jesus, I would encourage you, present a financial offering to him through this ministry. I am confident, beloved, by the faith of God's word that you're going to be blessed as a result of obedience to him. This is Rabbi Schneider. God bless you. I love you and Shalom.
Dustin Roberts: Amen. And to give a donation to Discovering The Jewish Jesus today, just visit us at discoveringthejewishjesus.com or give us a call at 800-777-7835. And as a token of our appreciation when you give, we want to make sure that you receive our latest newsletter. It's packed with exclusive additional content, ministry updates, and there's even a personal letter from Rabbi's wife, Cynthia. And I believe it'll encourage and inspire you. And you know, speaking of inspiration, I want to remind you of something today. Your gifts, they truly have an impact on everyone who hears this program, including our incarcerated listeners. Yep, that's right. We have people listening to shows of Rabbi Schneider in prison. And here's a testimony letter that we received from one man who listens to our program, and he said, "I came to prison when I was 47 years old. God wasn't in my life. I married a woman I did not love and my 24-year-old marriage was a mess. When I was sentenced, I cursed God for betraying me and I taunted him in every vile and evil manner hoping he would kill me. I was worse than anyone portrayed in the Bible. If I would have died, I would have spent eternity in hell. But then, I listened to your program and I just want to thank you." Wow, this person got saved. This person realized what they were missing because of Rabbi's messages, and you friends listening, you're the ones that help make it possible by your gifts. If you've never given today, give at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. Now here's Rabbi with the Aaronic blessing.
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: In the book of Numbers chapter 6, the Lord gave instructions to Moses and Aaron to speak this blessing over his people. And the Lord said, "When you speak these words over my people, I will place my name on them and bless them." Receive the impartations of the Lord's blessings. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up with his countenance and the Lord give you, beloved one, his peace. And now, in Hebrew. Y'varechecha Adonai v'yishmerecha. Ya'er Adonai panav eilecha v'yichuneka. Yisa Adonai panav eilecha v'yasem l'cha shalom. God bless you and shalom.
Dustin Roberts: This program is produced and sponsored by Discovering The Jewish Jesus. And I'm your host, Dustin Roberts. Make sure to come back tomorrow when Rabbi Schneider continues to dive into the importance of your dreams. That's coming up Thursday on Discovering The Jewish Jesus.