When God Appears in Dreams

 

When God Appears in Dreams

God is a spirit and has no physical shape. And yet, for teaching purposes, the Holy Spirit gives us dreams in which God appears symbolically as a man whose figure is appropriate for the lesson being taught.

In my dreams of this kind, He was most often represented by a likeness of my natural father, but always in a context that only made sense by interpreting the figure to be the heavenly Father. For example, in the first dream of this type, He was the foreman of a stevedore crew that was unloading the cargo of fruit from a ship that had just docked. I had already learned that, in my dreams, the ocean symbolized the sea of spirit, and fruit symbolized the fruits of the Spirit received in this world from the true world of spirit.

But in other dreams God appeared as a man, cast in a role appropriate to the message being conveyed. In the first dream of this type, I was talking to the superintendent in charge of the construction of a large building, possibly a hotel. We were standing beside the swimming pool, which was still under construction. To my surprise, he seemed eager to have me work for him. "We have a need for your abilities," he said. Although he was credible as a construction supervisor, I was thinking throughout the conversation, "This man is really God."

This realization requires some explanation. The revelation that this being is God is absolute. It is not a conjecture. That is a characteristic of all dreams of this type. Often the realization is surprising, but not so much as to end the dream.

In another dream He appeared dressed in a work uniform as a kind of project supervisor. It had been a dry Spring, and I had been praying often for more rain. In the dream He was holding a clipboard which apparently had a list of projects that He was checking off. Suddenly, He glanced up at me and said, “Let's see. You prayed for rain.” At that point I realized He was God. He turned and walked out, and that was the end of the dream. But for the rest of the summer, until the first of September we had a dry spell. Farmers harvested crops. Then in the third week of September, we had a downpour.

In one dream, I was standing inside a business building, watching with curiosity as one person after another disappeared through a door for a few minutes, and then returned, with the appearance of having received orders. I walked near the door, and someone seemed to say, “It's OK to come in”. So, I did. I found a man sitting behind a desk facing the door. I said, “Who are you?”. He glanced up with a sly smile of bemusement, and said, “I'm the Boss!”. Then I realized that he was God. I also had other dreams which appeared to emphasize that God has a sense of humor.

A different message was expressed in another dream. I had become discouraged after a long period of recording dreams that seemed to be unremittingly critical. That night my prayer went something like this: "Look, I have been taught that God is love; and I have received a lot of revelation through these dreams, for which I am grateful. But virtually all that I get is criticism, and I don't sense any of that love that I need to sustain me." I went on in that vein for a while, and then fell asleep. Immediately, a kind, rather elderly Gentleman appeared and embraced me like a long-lost son.

There were other dreams of this kind, but these few should serve as examples of what one might expect. Or, in view of the surprising nature of these dreams, perhaps I should say that they are what one might not expect.

Return to table of contents for this label:

Table of Contents for Mysticism Label (augustmarsblog.blogspot.com)