One of the most commonly asked question about faith is how can we hear from God? How can we know a thought or voice in our head is from God or our imagination or from the devil? Ultimately, it depends on our personal relationship with God. But still, there are some obvious characters we could look for to discern the source of revelations.
One principle we could conclude from the examples of dreams mentioned in the Bible is that true dreams from God are always good for the dreamer or other people. God breaks into a situation with prophetic means. God promised not to hold back what he is going to do. He would tell His servants. He also hates people who misuse His name. False prophets speak messages in His name while they did not receive any revelation from God. He severely rebuked this in the book of Jeremiah.
The first book of Corinthians chapter 14 verse 3: he that prophesies speaks unto men to edification, exhortation and comfort. All dreams and visions should abide these criteria. Real revelations bring life, hope and love. It helps the dreamer with guidance. It delivers someone from bondage. It may be a turning point of a situation, the answer for a perplexed man.
We see important prophetic dreams and visions in significant events in Bible. One of the most significant events ever happened is the birth of Jesus Christ. After the birth of Jesus, Herod the King wanted to kill him because he heard from the wise men from east that a king is born there. The wise men finally found baby Jesus and worshipped Him. They then received a dream from God. Originally, they planned to report to Herod after meeting Jesus. But the dream instructed them not to. We see that dreams from God always work goods for people, to show the love of God.
In the Book of Daniel, we also see an example of a God given revelation saving a group of people. In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, the king had a dream but forgot about it. He was troubled and demanded the sorcerers to tell his dream and the interpretation. Of course no one was able to do it, besides Daniel the prophet for God almighty was with him. God gave Daniel a revelation at night in form of a vision which is similar in nature of dreams. Daniel gave Nebuchadnezzar a satisfying answer and spared everybody’s life from death. In addition, the dream carries significant information about the end time!
In conclusion, if someone claims that he had a dream from God, but the dream or the message from the dream could not give constructive influence to the dreamer or the community, then the dream should not be viewed as a real divine dream. Even more so, if the dream or message brings harms, conflicts, strife or divisions, then there exists a possibility that the dream was from the devil.
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