Dreams And Visions Daniel 7:1 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed.

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1 Dreams And Visions Daniel 7:1 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed. Then he wrote down the dream and told the sum of the matter. This is the third time in Daniel that we read about a dream. The first two were dreams by Nebuchadnezzar. This one is by Daniel himself. 2 Where there is no vision, the people perish. Proverbs 29:18 KJV The NKJV translates it, Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint... The ESV translates it: Where there is no prophetic vision the people are discouraged; but blessed is he who keeps the law. To have no prophetic vision is to have no Bible. And to have no Bible the people are discouraged or cast off restraint. God s Law is the only thing that can restrain the governments of fallen man and ward off discouragement. 3 Dreams and visions come through The Spirit Of Man. I call it the heart or the subconscious. And they come in the form of symbols and riddles. God said, If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses... With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles (Numbers 12:6-8 ESV). But even though God spoke clearly to Moses, Moses veiled it to the people in riddles, types, and shadows. 4 But Jesus Came To Fulfill The Hidden Meaning of the Old Testament by unveiling it. The apostle Paul said, the mystery hidden for ages and generations [is] now revealed (Colossians 1:26 ESV). He said now we see through a glass dimly, but in the resurrection face to face (1 Cor 13:12). 5 Why Does God Speak In Mysteries? Why doesn t God just show us plainly? The answer is because of Adam s Fall. God cast Adam and Eve out of His Presence in Eden and put 1

2 His monstrous looking cherubim there to keep them out. The curse on sin is the reason. And yet man does know God in the subconscious of his heart, but his fallen sin nature consciously suppresses the truth. God has shown man His wrath against sin, but he rejects it. So they are without excuse. God made from one blood every nation that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us (Acts 17:26-27). 6 Man s makeup is of Body, Soul, And Spirit. God breathed into the body of Adam and he became a living soul. Breath is the same word as spirit in Hebrew. God s breath into Adam s body made him a living soul. James says there is a wisdom that comes from above and there is one that does not descend from above. He says, the wisdom from a heart of jealousy and selfish ambition is earthly, soulish, and devilish. When I see a man grit his teeth and wrinkle his nose in anger for what the early church did in rejecting certain heresies, I see a heart of jealousy. That wisdom does not descend from above. 7 God communicates primarily with man s spirit. I call it the subconscious. The Bible calls it the heart many times. The soul, on the other hand, is the conscious aspect of man and the body is the physical. The earthly wisdom pertains to feelings that are controlled by the physical and biological impulses. Soulish wisdom pertains to the understanding and the sensuality of the conscious mind. Devilish wisdom pertains to man s rebellious spirit inspired by demons. 8 God is a Spirit and looks for those who will worship Him in Spirit and in truth. Notice that it says, spirit first and truth secondly. The goal in spiritual growth is to get what God reveals to the spirit into the understanding so the eye will be single and consistent with the heart. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light (Luke 11:34-36 ESV). Teach me 2

3 your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name (Psalm 86:11 ESV). 9 Dreams Are In The Man s Spirit, the subconscious, sometimes called the heart. The interpretation of dreams brings understanding into the soul. The soul and the spirit of man are usually not totally consistent with each other. A man says, I know I should seek God s face. But he can t because he believes otherwise in his heart. He wants to do good but as Paul said, I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members (Romans 7:23 ESV). 10 Let me give some examples of how God Communicates First And Foremost With Man s Spirit, man s heart, man s subconscious in order to impart the wisdom from above into his understanding, his soul. From there it can train his physical or earthly habits. Jesus said, the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him (John 4:23 ESV). He said spirit first and then truth. If we want the truth it must come through the spirit of man. Again Scripture says there were prophets and teachers in the church at Antioch (Acts 13:1). Prophets refers to the spirit and teachers to the understanding. Paul said, I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding (1 Cor 14:15). We not only need the Holy Spirit for understanding truth, we also need Him for prayer. Praying only with the understanding is very limited. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words (Romans 8:26 ESV). God spoke to Nebuchadnezzar s spirit by means of dreams in the form of symbols. But it took a Spirit filled teacher to impart understanding. The same thing happened with Joseph when he interpreted Pharaoh s dreams. 11 3

4 Jude says False Teachers Are Soulish. They cause divisions, not having the Spirit (Jude 19). He says they reject authority, flatter, and speak evil of dignitaries. Teachers who go strictly by the understanding and not by means of the Spirit are soulish. 12 But we need to beware of a Dualism that emphasizes the spirit and rejects doctrine. We call this sort of dualism extreme pietism. Dualism is when one truth is emphasized to the neglect of the other truth. Those who emphasize the mind to the neglect of the spirit are also soulish dualists. Jesus said, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (Matthew 22:37 ESV). Either way is unbalanced rebellion. 13 He that wins souls is wise Proverbs 11:30 In winning souls we need to aim for the heart, the spirit, the subconscious. If we sense that a person has some of the truth in his heart but his understanding contradicts his heart, don t throw out the baby with the bath water. Give him space. It s like having a fish partially taking the bait. Don t pull him in too fast or you ll tear out the bait and he ll be lost. Give him slack. Let him run with what he s got so far and maybe he ll swallow the whole bait. The bait is the truth he believes in his heart. You can t force him to understand. 14 We are all Slaves To What We Believe in the heart, not what we believe with the head. What we believe in the heart (the spirit) is our constitutional makeup. It s our underlying presupposition; it s what we unconsciously presuppose to be the truth. It s a waste of time to debate with devilish wisdom. Don t cast your pearls before swine. They ll just trample precious pearls of truth and also attack you. 15 James explains How To Recognize Devilish Wisdom. He says, But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down 4

5 from above, but is earthly, unspiritual [soulish], demonic (James 3:14-15 ESV). 16 Soulish The Greek word translated unspiritual or sensual is psychicos. It comes from the word psyche, which means soul. Literally, psychicos means soulish. 1 Corinthians 2:14 translates it, the natural man. It says, The natural person [the soulish man] does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14 ESV). God is a Spirit and seeks those who will worship Him in Spirit and in truth both. 5

6 The Message Pastor Ron Smith Dreams and Visions Daniel 7:1 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed. Then he wrote down the dream and told the sum of the matter.

7 Where there is no vision, the people perish. Proverbs 29:18 KJV Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint NKJV Where there is no prophetic vision the people are discouraged ESV but blessed is he who keeps the law.

8 The Spirit of Man Visions and dreams come in the form of symbols and riddles.

9 Jesus Came to Fulfill the Hidden Meaning the mystery hidden for ages and generations [is] now revealed (Colossians 1:26 ESV).

10 Why Does God Speak in Mysteries? The curse on sin is the reason. Man does know God in the subconscious of his heart. But his fallen sin nature consciously suppresses the truth.

11 Body, Soul, and Spirit The wisdom from a heart of jealousy and selfish ambition is earthly, soulish, and devilish.

12 Man s Spirit I call it the sub-conscious. The soul = conscious understanding

13 In Spirit and in Truth Unite my heart to fear your name (Psalm 86:11 ESV).

14 Dreams Are in Man s Spirit The interpretation of dreams brings understanding into the soul.

15 God Communicates First and Foremost with Man s Spirit worship the Father in spirit and truth (John 4:23 ESV) prophets and teachers in the church at Antioch (Acts 13:1) I will pray with the spirit, and with the understanding. (1 Corinthians 14:15).

16 False Teachers Are Soulish They cause divisions, not having the Spirit (Jude 19)

17 Dualism To emphasize the mind to the neglect of the spirit is dualism. To emphasize the spiritual to the neglect of doctrine is also dualism.

18 He that wins souls is wise Proverbs 11:30 The bait is the truth he believes in his heart. You can t force him to understand.

19 Slaves to What We Believe What we believe in the heart (the spirit) is our constitutional makeup.

20 How to Recognize Devilish Wisdom bitter jealousy and selfish ambition (James 3:14-15 ESV).

21 Soulish God is a Spirit and seeks those who will worship Him in Spirit and in truth both.

22 The Message Pastor Ron Smith Dreams and Visions Daniel 7:1 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed. Then he wrote down the dream and told the sum of the matter.