The Dream Book: A Practical Guide to Christian Dream Interpretation

By Lee Ann Rubsam

5 Stars at Readers' Favorite! -- "Truly fascinating, thought-provoking, and inspirational, The Dream Book is essential reading."

Weird dreams -- what if they're not the result of that nacho cheese dip you ate too close to bedtime? What if they are really messages from God so wrapped in symbolism that you're not recognizing them for what they are?

Throughout the Bible, God spoke to His people through dreams, and He's still doing it today. He wants to speak to YOU in this way!

The Dream Book gives you keys to understanding your dreams. Topics include:
~ How to discern whether your dream is from God, yourself, or the enemy of your soul
~ God's varied purposes in speaking through dreams
~ Creating an environment for God-dreams
~ Understanding the language and mechanics of dreams
~ How to tell the difference between literal and symbolic dreams
~ Practical principles for accurate dream interpretation
~ Common dream themes and symbols
~ Dreams as tools for intercession
~ How to interpret other people's dreams ... and more.

The Dream Book includes an extensive dictionary of Bible symbols with references.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lee Ann Rubsam
• Release date: Nov 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463346464

Lee Ann Rubsam

Lee Ann Rubsam is a Christian author, essayist, and prophetic teacher who specializes in writing about prayer and Christian character building. Her materials are used by churches, home study groups, and home schooling families throughout the world.One of Lee Ann’s primary interests is to encourage intercessors in their calling and to help them reach their highest level of effectiveness in prayer. With that goal in mind, in addition to her books, she and her husband Paul present practical, hands-on intercessor workshops at their home base in Appleton, Wisconsin, and elsewhere upon request.Lee Ann and Paul have two children and four grandchildren.

Book preview

The Dream Book

A Practical Guide to

Christian Dream Interpretation

Lee Ann Rubsam

Full Gospel Family Publications

Appleton, Wisconsin

The Dream Book: A Practical Guide

to Christian Dream Interpretation

Lee Ann Rubsam

Published by Full Gospel Family Publications at Smashwords

Copyright 2020 by Lee Ann Rubsam

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the express permission of the publisher.

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share it with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

All Bible quotes are from The Modernized KJV.

Full Gospel Family Publications

419 East Taft Avenue

Appleton, Wisconsin 54915

[phone]

Contents

1. Introduction to Dreams

2. Dreams in the Bible

3. Three Sources of Dreams (Part 1)

4. Three Sources of Dreams (Part 2)

5. God's Purposes for Dreams

6. Creating an Environment for God-Dreams

7. Beginning Principles of Dream Interpretation

8. The Language of Dreams

9. The Mechanics of Dreams

10. Interpreting Common Dream Symbols

11. Numbers

12. If You Are an Intercessor

13. Interpreting Other People's Dreams

14. Final Tips

Dictionary of Bible Symbols

Activities

Animals

Body Parts

Colors

Directions

Gems, Metals, and Minerals

Numbers

People

Places

Plants and Plant Parts

Miscellaneous

Bibliography

About the Author

Chapter 1

Introduction to Dreams

Dreams. Why do they happen? Are they simply the outworking of a hyperactive imagination? The result of too much good food too close to bedtime? Our repressed desires and anxieties coming to the surface in weird ways?

Scientific sleep studies seem to suggest that, whether we remember them or not, we all dream. It was long hypothesized that the REM (rapid eye movement) stage of the sleep cycle, when the brain is most active, is when dreams are most likely to occur. However, newer studies now seem to suggest that we dream throughout the night, not only during the REM stage. (1)

Dreams are thought to be an essential part of good health, both mental and physical. The brain may need to process and organize what has gone on during the day in order to rejuvenate itself. We know that people who are completely deprived of sleep for long periods of time tend to break down mentally as well as physically. Some researchers hypothesize that not being able to dream is at least part of the reason for that. (2)

Dreaming is not limited to humans. If you have ever watched your dogs or cats snoozing, you've probably been amused by their antics -- muffled woofs or meows and legs paddling in slow motion, as though they are chasing something. So yes, animals dream too!

People have been fascinated with dreams since the beginning of history. In many cultures, they have been thought to reveal the future or warn of impending disaster. They are sometimes enjoyable, occasionally quite humorous, often disturbing, sometimes absolutely terrifying. But ... surely they are not meant to be taken seriously ... or are they? Or, are they simply the result of an overactive imagination? We've commonly attributed the really crazy ones to indigestion -- what some have laughingly referred to as pizza dreams.

In this book, we're going to examine dreams from a Christian perspective. I'll lay out for you the biblical foundation for believing them to be messages from God, share with you practical ideas for how to increase your dreams and the remembrance of them, and give you tools for understanding them.

Whether you are new to dream interpretation or whether you’ve been at this for some time, my hope is that you will find useful information in these pages to add to whatever knowledge you already possess. I believe that our main purpose in wanting to unlock our dreams should be to grow in knowing the Lord better, and I hope that learning more about them will be as much fun for you as it has been for me.

My personal dream journey

Dreams are one of my favorite ways to hear from the Lord. They are also one of my strongest forms of receiving from Him. But it hasn't always been like that. Some years ago, my pastor asked me, Lee Ann, what do you hear from God in dreams?

I was a bit surprised. I had not considered the idea of the Lord speaking to me in that way. I replied that I couldn't recall any dreams which I thought were from Him. But my pastor and his wife felt strongly that dreams were supposed to be an important avenue for me to hear from God. So they prayed for me, with the laying on of hands, that God would open up my dream life to revelation. Shortly thereafter, I began to have significant dreams which I knew were definitely from the Lord.

Eventually, I recalled recurring dreams I had experienced in my childhood -- and now, for the first time, I suddenly understood what they had meant! The Lord also brought to my remembrance several dreams I had received in early adulthood which truly had been messages from Him.

Because my ability to hear from God in dreams began with prayer impartation accompanied by the laying on of hands, I truly wish I had the opportunity to pray with each one of you in the same way. Although I cannot do that, I believe that if you will pray this prayer with me, God will even now, at the beginning of our time together in this book, impart to you an increase in dreams and in the ability to understand them. God sees the desire in your heart, and He will graciously answer -- because no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly (Psalm 84:11). If Jesus is your Savior, this promise applies to you, since you are righteous and upright through Him. Shall we pray?

Dear heavenly Father, I thank You for wanting to speak to me through many means, including dreams. I ask You to give me dreams which are directly from You, and help me to remember them when I awake. I ask You to also give me the understanding of what they mean. I look forward to hearing Your Spirit speak to me in this way. I receive of You, in Jesus' mighty name. Amen.

Why hearing God through dreams is not generally known in the Church

Perhaps you are skeptical about whether there is anything to this business of God speaking to us through dreams. That is understandable, because for many years the Church as a whole quit talking about dreams, along with many of the other supernatural gifts and experiences which were once a very normal part of church life.

The early Church fathers, in the first three or four centuries after the New Testament was written, spoke in their writings of having heard from God through dreams. Polycarp (disciple of the apostle John), Origen, Augustine, Athanasius, and quite a few others wrote about specific revelation God had given to them through dreams. Mark Virkler, a well-known dream teacher, has researched and compiled some details of what they said at his website: https://www.cwgministries.org/dreams-and-visions-throughout-church-history.

Unfortunately, as secularism infiltrated the Church, much of the unbelief and strictly intellectual ideas common to nonbelievers also pervaded the way God's people approached spiritual matters. Supernatural interactions with God which had once been accepted with childlike simplicity were set aside in favor of what could be sensed and experienced only in material, natural ways.

Furthermore, when New Age spirituality, Eastern religions, and other occult practices began to sweep through Western society, many Christians who had not seen God actively moving in everyday experience became afraid of anything supernatural. Because spiritualists of various sorts were interested in dreams, some Christian leaders warned that we should stay away from expecting to hear from God in this way.

Quite honestly, we need to change our thinking. God is gradually restoring understanding about many things to His people -- truths which were once generally accepted and have always been in His Word, but men's traditions cut them out -- things like the spiritual gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10, healing, miracles, or the five-fold ministry functions (including apostles and prophets) which are mentioned in Ephesians 4:11, 12.

The Lord is now bringing back to His people the lost treasure of hearing His voice through dreams which ignorance and fear had deprived the Church of for so long. You may not have recognized that He is already trying to speak to you in this way. If you have not been taught about dreams from a Christian perspective before, you are probably missing out on important insights and guidance which God desires for you to have. I hope that as we continue through this book, you will become open to the adventure He wants to unfold to you through dreams.

A personal testimony

My mother has always been a prolific dreamer, who frequently told us her dreams at the dinner table while I was growing up. We'd all laugh and shake our heads at Mom's weird tales, because we didn't know any better back then. I now realize that Mom was actually experiencing prophetic revelation from the Lord, but without the framework to understand dreams, we all dismissed what she saw as only being the outworking of an overactive imagination.

However, a few years ago, I had an interesting talk with her about one of her dreams. We had been discussing hearing God, and I mentioned that I receive a lot of guidance from the Lord through dreams.

She said, Well maybe you can tell me what this one means.

She told me of a recurring dream she was having, where she was back working in the office she had retired from over twenty years before. In the dream, a coworker (a real person from back then) was constantly putting her down and being mean to her (which had actually happened).

I said, Mom, it sounds to me like God is trying to get through to you about an unresolved issue. That's why you repeatedly have this dream. Have you ever forgiven this woman?

To my great surprise, she emphatically responded, No!

I was a bit shocked at the quickness and intensity of her reply. I had not realized Mom was harboring unforgiveness in her life, but she answered without a thought, out of the honesty of her heart.

I said, Mom, you know as a Christian that you're supposed to forgive, or the Lord won't be able to forgive you. That's what He is trying to get through to you. You need to forgive that woman. (See Matthew 6:14, 15 and Mark 11:25, 26.)

In her childlike simplicity, she didn't resist. Okay, she responded, I'll take care of this with God as soon as we get off the phone."

Mom's dream had a pretty straightforward interpretation. It wasn't very hard to figure out. But not all dreams are that easy to understand. Many are more symbolic than hers and need a lot of prayer to unlock them.

The point I want to make is, God is trying to reveal to us, through our dreams, things we need to know. He seeks to correct our wrong attitudes, bring to the surface any fears which require His assistance in resolving, prepare us for our future, help us solve problems, and guide us. Dreams have other purposes as well, which we will talk about more in Chapter 5.

I believe the most important reason He gives us dreams, however, is simply because He desires to fellowship with us. He wants to share the secrets of His heart, and dreams are one more vehicle He uses to do that. In Psalm 25:14, He says, The secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant. Proverbs 3:32 promises, …His secret is with the righteous. Isn't it amazing that God, Who said in Psalm 113:6 that He humbles Himself even to look upon the heaven and the earth, would want to share His secrets with us? But He does!

In our next chapter, we'll establish the biblical precedent for dreams. I want you to be securely confident that this dream thing really is from the Lord.

______________________

(1) Perrine M. Ruby, Experimental Research on Dreaming: State of the Art and Neuropsycho-analytic Perspectives, Frontiers in Psychology, November 18, 2011, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3220269.

(2) Derek Beres, The Serious Health Consequences of Not Dreaming, Big Think, March 25, 2018, https://bigthink.com/21st-century-spirituality/the-serious-health-consequences-of-not-dreaming.

Chapter 2

Dreams in the Bible

Although I will be sharing a lot throughout this book from my personal experiences, it is also my highest priority to stay firmly anchored in biblical truth. I love the Word of God! It must be our standard for everything. Rest assured, we're not going to go off into weird places along the way. Let's start by taking a look at God's use of dreams as a means of communicating with people in Bible times.

Abraham

In Genesis 15, God and Abram (later renamed Abraham) were having a conversation. Abram was expressing his disappointment in not having an heir. He was worried that his possessions would have to be passed on to the head servant of his household if he died childless. The Lord assured him this would not happen, but that he would have a biological son, even though Abram was already getting old.

God took him outside the tent and invited him, Look now toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to number them. ...So shall your descendants be (v. 5). He went on to say that He had purposely brought him to this land to inherit it.

Abram believed the Lord's promise, but he still asked, Lord GOD, by what token shall I know that I shall inherit it? (v. 8). In essence, Abram was asking God to make a covenant with him.

The Lord instructed him to prepare several animal sacrifices by cutting them in half and putting them in position. In that day, it was common custom for people covenanting with each other to kill animals, cut them in half, and place the halves with a walkway between them. The blood ran between the carcass halves, and those making covenant with each other walked through the blood in the pathway as part of making their solemn vows to each other before their gods. Abram knew exactly what God was up to, so he did as the Lord instructed, and then waited.

And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram and a horror of great darkness.

And He said to Abram, "Know of a surety that your seed [descendants] shall be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them. And they shall afflict them four hundred years. And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge. And afterward, they shall come out with great substance. And you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation, they shall come here again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full."

And it came to pass, that when the sun went down and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace and a burning lamp passed between those pieces.

In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto your seed have I given this land....

-- Genesis 15:12-18

Jacob

In Genesis 28:10-22, we read of Jacob fleeing from Esau. On the way to his Uncle Laban's home, while he slept, God visited him in a dream.

And he dreamed, and behold, a staircase was set upon the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. The angels of God ascended and descended upon it. The LORD stood above it and said, "I am the LORD God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land you are lying upon, to you will I give it and to your seed.

"And your seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in you and in your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

"And, behold, I am with you, and will keep you in all places wherever you go, and will bring you again to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have