DR”DREAMS AND VISIONS” by Gary Toole, The Christian Way Ministries
Down through the ages of time, God has spoken to mankind in many different ways. He even spoke to one fellow through a donkey and, no, his name wasn’t “Mr. Ed”. Mr. Ed was a horse on a T.V. show, if you are old enough to remember that for back. God has spoken to many through dreams and visions.
The Bible says that young men will see visions, and old men will dream dreams. Well, for the most part that is true, because it seems like the older you get the more you dream or better yet the more you have nightmares. Most of my dreams have always been about someone chasing me, trying to kill me, or jumping off a building without a parachute. They say that when you have dreams like that it’s because the devil is after you. Well let’s face it, he’s after all of us! Amen!
Now, my dad said that years ago, if someone had an old crazy dream, they said that it was because they had eaten too much collard greens and fatback for supper. Well, maybe that was my problem, because I still love both of them.
Laying all joking aside, dreams can be read. In Joel 2:28 the Word says, “Your old men shall dream dreams and your young men shall see visions.” God does speak through dreams and visions to many. When they are from God, then they have meaning. My dad went out into a vision and God took him to the waiting room of hell, as he called it, and the doors flew open and would come up before his face. He cried out, “Oh God have mercy on me,” and all of a sudden the doors were closed and my dad was led to a fork in the road and someone said, “Don’t take the wrong road!” That someone was Jesus.
That vision was real and it set my father on the right path. Had he not experienced that vision then he may have strayed and lost out with God, and then all the ones he has won to Christ, may have been lost too. There’s two songs that talks about dreams that I love and sing often. “I dreamed of that city called glory so bright and fair, when I entered the gates I cried holy! The angels all welcomed me there. They showed me from mansion to mansion and oh the sights I saw, but I said, oh I want to see Jesus, the one who died for all, then I bowed on my knees and cried holy, holy to the son of God.”
The other says, “Last night I dreamed an angel came, he took my hand, he called my name, he bade me look the other way, I saw a man I heard Him say. He said, ‘If I be lifted up I’ll draw all men to me,’ He turned and then I saw the nail scarred hands that bled for me. I touched the hem of His garment that fell around Him there. My heart, my life I gave, my soul was in His care.” Can you say amen?
