What is a dream?
- Act or effect of dreaming.
- Set of images, thoughts or fantasies that are presented to the mind during sleep.
What does the Bible say about Dreams?
The Bible says that a dream can be a means used by God to talk to people.
In addition to making some people dream, we also see in the Bible that God gave some the ability to interpret dreams, such as Joseph (Genesis 40 and 41) and Daniel (Daniel 7:1-7).
In the New Testament, God also spoke to Joseph through dreams, so that he did not divorce Mary.
We can see that in the Bible God uses dreams with three purposes:
To warn and give indications (Matthew 2:12);
To reveal a prophecy, as happened in the case of Joseph (Genesis 37:5);
To encourage a person or a group (Judges 7:13-15).
It is very important to say that one must be careful, because not all dreams are given by God. Normal dreams are usually the result of mixing our memories with our imagination.
What is a dream for psychology?
Dreams are vital psychic processes, subjective experiences, created through relationship between our inner world and the outer world. They are constructions of our psyche with the function of regulating and balancing our lives. Dreaming is a form of communication with our unconscious as well as the collective unconscious.
Do all dreams have a meaning?
Determining the specific nature of each person's dream is a matter very complex and subjective. In addition to "lying dreams" and inauthentic (Jeremiah 23:32; 29:8, 9), there are two large groups of real dreams. The first and most common of these is formed by natural dreams, which are part of the normal resting process during sleep, and whose content can be presented in an organized or disorganized way. Since "out of many works come dreams" (Ecclesiastes 5:3), it is likely that people involved in religious matters will end up dreaming about them, without such dreams being supernatural in origin.
The second basic group of dreams is formed by supernatural dreams, which can be of divine or satanic origin. Dreams of divine origin usually have a well-defined salvation purpose, and can be granted both to true prophets (Numbers 12:6), and to ordinary members of God's people (Joel 2:28), and even to people who do not belong to the people of God (Genesis 41; Daniel 2). In turn, dreams of satanic origin are almost always fascinating, and may contain truths to confuse the person. Their predictions may even come true, but they tend to eventually and somehow lead a person away from God and His will (see Jeremiah 29:8; Matthew 24:24; 1 Peter 5:8).
Are all dreams from God?
It is very important to say that one must be careful, because NOT all dreams are given by God. Normal dreams are usually the result of mixing our memories with our imagination.