Hearing God whether Awake or Asleep: What to do when God is speaking to you in dreams.

Hearing God whether Awake or Asleep: 

What to do when God is speaking to you in dreams.

I often get asked (like 'Golda' in Fiddler on the Roof) ' tell me what my dream means Golda' . In fact, my late husband Ben used to get a kick out of this because first thing we did every morning after a morning kiss and plugging in the coffee, is race to see who could remember their dream so we could blurt it out to the other before we forgot it. Before dashing to get to get out the door to work, we were telling each the dream we had the night before. I know many people dismiss dreams as too much lasagna the night before, but the truth is, form the Word of God, nothing could be further from the truth. There are hundreds of references in the Torah, Haftorah and Brit Chadashah about dreams. Until the Western World nearly wiped out the Holy Sprit influences in the post modern world, people knew that ' Genesis 46:2 dreams were often a message from God. I greatly value the Lord teachings (even in our sleep), for our Spirits never sleep -- only our conscious psyche (mind/soul). The Spirit of God is alive in you 24/7. We would be in big trouble fast if it were not so; we would not be alive if the Spirit of Life in us took even a catnap for a day. There would be no breathing O2 and walking on terra firma. There is a sweetness to listening to the God who whispers. In our mind and heart, He reveals symbols, signs, meanings (even when we are asleep). And when we awake, we can  match it with scripture and meditating on His Word. I keep a journal aside of my bed, and for years, I have jotted down many words and impressions the Lord has given me. (unfortunately, I did not always pay attention or heed some needed advice I should have. Yeshua is always working in us, changing us into His image: and fashioning us to see and hear and respond to the world where the soul/spirit live: on the inside, where the tree of life really is. Yeshua is that tree, and we are His branches. He is growing in us, so naturally, He communicates spirit-to-spirit, which is stronger than any connection to bone and marrow.  The Lord may be giving some of you dreams, and you are not sure how to understand this. Remember, the language of the Spirit is from the left side of our brain (creative side). The left side is like an accountant of sorts. Words, reading, math, they are logical and analytical. Accountants, scientists, doctors are often right-sided thinkers. This has been proven scientifically many times over. The more predominantly right-lobed folks (like myself) are very visual, in touch with their 5 senses, spacial and emotional. Writers, pastors, teachers, leaders, prophets, dreamers, singers, (the creative arts) are the right-lobed folks. Some people have a nice mix of both, but just like medicine has proved people feet and limbs or feet are usually larger on one side of the their body more than the other - most people are more pronounced on one side. My sweet husband was definitely a left-sided thinker: scientist, doctor, very logical. Thank goodness for the ‘left lobers’ .

If right-lobed folks ruled the world, nothing would get finished. (this is an acknowledgement to my many projects that are started but not yet finished. Oh Vey!). Ben was very in touch with his emotions and creative side too, so he was an unusual blending of both.  Me: well, I am work-in-progress on the heavenly carpenter’s tool shed, we’ll leave it at that. I am as right-lobed as they come. Job placement offices across the world often test people’s abilities by this precise methodology: certain strengths and leanings in one’s personality will show them what jobs and professions they are more suited for. An accountant will be miserable if he tries to make a living as a starving artist; conversely; an engineer who needs order and function will hate the life of a freelance musician. If we are to be successful in life, in the Kingdom, and in our eternal destiny - we can start tonight: pay attention to what God is saying when you wake up. Listen to your heart: as Jesus said, the issues of life start and end there. The Lord said two words to me upon waking one morning in 1989: ‘Buried Treasure’.  I thought maybe I should start panning for gold in the apartment I was renting, I really didn’t get it at first. After prayer and asking Him what He meant, he said “Liz, that is the name of the book I want you to write “Buried Treasure”. Within my people are buried all the treasures of my kingdom.  And so I did. In fact, it was the book ‘Buried Treasure’ that was on a vendor table at a messianic conference in 1997 that the Lord told me to go to. It was there that a handsome Army Officer en route to Japan stopped by and asked me a million questions. That man was Ben, and that book, was how we met. Had I not listened to that dream and the dialogue with God that followed, I never would have met or married Ben. In a dream, God told me to go. He told me I would meet the man God had purposed for me to meet. At that time and at that place.  Lech Lecha! (Go!) God walked him right into my life because of a dream.

There are some very good wonderful (Christian) books on dream interpretation from biblical viewpoints. I worked for a Christian publisher in the early 90’s, and we edited Rev. Dr. Herman Riffle’s books “Dreams, A Way to Listen to God’ and some other fine books that dealt with dreams. That was a lifesaver for me! I never knew it was even ‘ok’ to think your dreams were anything but random mental bubbles playing on the trampoline of your subconscious at night. Once I understood God was speaking to me, it became clearer to me what He was trying to say. Because in the language of the Spirit (God is both spatial and visual at the same time), God inhabits more than even time and space, up and down.  If you doubt this, look how He spoke to all the prophets from Genesis to Revelation. Look at how He created the world. He spoke (spatial) and it became (visual). God is not 3-dimensional, He is beyond time and space. When He (who lives in us) is trying to talk to us, He wants to inhabit more than just our ‘space of conscious thinking’ (reasoning) alone and go into our spirit-man, where all creativity comes from. Whether it is warning us of impending things to come, to prepare us, or encourage us to move to new levels in Him, the Creator has full access to all the tools on His tool belt. It is an exciting, wonderful life to dream with God! I found out His dreams for me are far better than I ever dreamed for myself. We ignore God’s voice (often spoken in a whisper between night and daybreak) to our own detriment.  He loves us so much. Like a good Father, He is just trying to help us. Many times, He has used animal images (a friendly dog, a galloping horse) to show me different sides of myself that He were coming more alive in Him, and there are often fearful creatures in areas where He was showing me areas where He wants me to overcome the adversary or the flesh in a part of myself. Don’t limit God to 4 squares in a peg: He invented billions of solar systems: He can show off in any size, shape and color He wants. The less you limit God, the greater your ability to contain His glory. And this is important, cause the more of God in us – the more we can give out to others. We are alive for one another as much as for ourselves. We are all part of a greater ‘Echad’ called the Kingdom of God.   I personally have kept a record of prophetic words God has spoken to me (from the laying on of hands spoken by prophets and people of God) since I was a young girl of 23 dancing in the theatre world and asking God to show me who He was and what He wanted for my life. I love those words: I have saved them like a lovesick teenager and have gone everywhere I have lived. They are of great value to me:  it is the very breath of God and it says how He feels about me. Is anything more wonderful than a love letter from God?  Even when He corrects us and reproves us, He is loving us. When he honors us and blesses us, He is thrilled to be our Father. If we ever could feel the weight of His love for us, it would crush us in our present state. There have been a few times in my life I felt His love like that: and I could not stand under the weight of His glory. I was undone. Unglued. No wonder the Song of Solomon tells the story of lovesick hearts, God was showing through the Shulamite woman how He really feels about us: He is crazy about you and me. Yes, He hated the sin enough to offer His own Son for the ransom, but He loves us. And He will show you His love in even your dreams.

Why did I say all this. God’s love often hides in the darkest places of earth: the inside of a clay jar. You and I are that clay pot. In our sleep, He can shine in the noonday light.

On a last note: I will share a personal dream here, for illustration sake. This past week, Ben’s sister called me, and said “Liz, are you ok, I had the most vivid dream about you”. She proceeded to tell me this:   “Liz, I dreamed that you were in a coffin (or casket) at the church (where Ben's service was). You had died, and it was your service. You were laid out in a beautiful wedding gown. As everyone was boo-hooing, you suddenly jumped out of the coffin, smiling and dancing. You were suddenly alive, and there was great rejoicing”.  She said “Liz, at first the dream was so sad, but it had a really happy ending”. How like life: what a paradigm for the whole gest of human history. We sinned, got kicked out of the garden (sad), but the happy ending is we are back in the garden with the Chief Husbandsman who rescues us.

This isn’t rocket-science here. As my sister-in-law was telling me the dream, the interpreter on the inside of me (The Holy Spirit) was giving me the skinny on this: This is what the Lord revealed: “When Ben died, I, as his wife (and we were one in spirit and body, ‘Echad’) I felt like I died too. Compiled with other deaths this year of loved ones, it was a year of sorrow and grief on many levels. I (Ben’s wife, his bride) had died on many levels. Being in a ‘coffin; of course speaks of death. The casket was in the church for the memorial service. Suddenly, the bride (me) was not dead anymore, I was very much alive and jumped out of that casket (like a type of Lazarus, and came forth). Dancing, happy feet. I believe the dream has a twofold meaning: (1) In the dream I was a bride (The Bride of Christ) who is coming alive. The Lord is getting us ready for His return, for the Second Coming, for the countdown of the End of things. But first, He is showing off his bride to the world. (many scriptures tell us the Lord will pour out His spirit in the last days, His sons and daughters will dream dreams, prophesy etc). We will be His hands and feet in the earth. WE ARE HIS BRIDE.  It looked like the enemy killed us off. It looks like we have been mortally wounded. But then, from death to life! And (2): I think this also holds a personal message to me that the Lord gave my sister-in-law and me: the Lord showed me that I will be married again. Today, the Lord spoke to me about Isaiah 62 “b. The Gentiles shall see your righteousness: When God lifts up Zion, then the nations see it and brought to trust in the LORD themselves. And “You shall be called by a new name”. If I am to remarry, then I will have another last name.

Although my beloved Ben is in his eternal reward, I knew he loved me and wanted God’s best for me, always. In fact, this year, when the Lord asked me if I wanted to marry again, I said only if He (the Lord) and Ben would work in tandem and choose for me. Choices like this, when the price of ministry, destiny, and providence is so high, and our lives affect others, is costly. I cannot be trusted to even know what is best for me anymore. Too much is at stake: the Glory of the House of the Lord. For Zion’s sake, don’t hold back. As the Word says, “Unless He (the Lord) builds the house, they that labor labor in vain”(Ps 127:1) . Only my spiritual Eliezer (Gen. 24) can choose the Isaac for this Rebecca.  So that dream that so startled my sister in law- thinking I had died, was the spirit of God telling her I am about to become enlivened again, spirit, body, soul and mind, for the Creator. We are all the bride of Christ. And lovely to behold.  Listen to your dreams. You will find the secrets of the Kingdom in hidden places, in ‘Buried Treasure’.  Get a journal. Get a pen. God wants to speak to you tonight.

EndNotes:

Coffins and caskets in dreams can mean dying physically (but more often, it is mentally and emotionally deaths we face every day).  But, it can also mean coming out of spiritual death into life in Christ (Ephesians 2:5). I know a bridal gown (what I was wearing in the casket) symbolizes being prepared for marriage.   And ultimately, even if I were to die, I would be  in the presence on the Lord, in a flash, more alive there than I am right now.  Yet I know God has things for me to do, He has shown me so. If I am obedient (Dt. 28) to do all that He has told me to do, I will live and see those good plans comes to pass. So death has no hold on me, no fear. My husband’s death, and other family and friends deaths just this year, has shown me, for a believer, death cannot keep us in the grave. We will grieve, but we will be made alive again in God. “Oh death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? KJV Corinthians 15:55

[And God spoke to Israel in a vision at night and said, "Jacob! Jacob!" "Here I am," he replied.  Job 33:29   "God does all these things to a person-- twice, even three times-- Job 40:5  I spoke once, but I have no answer-- twice, but I will say no more."  Psalm 62:11   One thing God has spoken, two things I have heard: "Power belongs to you, God, Daniel 7:1 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, and visions passed through his mind as he was lying in bed. He wrote down the substance of his dream. Job 1:1 In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. Job 33:13  Why do you complain to him that he responds to no one's words]. Below is a website with some easy references to get you started.  * * A good website is ChristianDreamSymbols.com   A – Z with biblical references.

Respectfully submitted:

Elizabeth Cassutto

Lightbeacon Ministries & Services

P.O. Box 1445

Millsboro, Delaware  19966