Dreams, Visions and Prophecy Today

Question 1008.

The question of dreams and visions and prophecy today stirs up real confusion and no small amount of division in the church. Does God still speak through such means? Should I expect them, seek them, or be suspicious of them? I want to think this through carefully, because the two easy answers, an outright no and an uncritical yes, both lead people astray.

On one side stand those who deny that God could ever work outside their tidy categories. On the other stand those who treat every striking dream as a direct message from heaven, to be obeyed without question. The path I want to walk keeps Scripture as the final word while leaving room for the God who is still very much alive and at work.

Dreams and visions in the Bible’s own story

Dreams and visions are woven right through Scripture. God spoke to Joseph and to Daniel through dreams, to Ezekiel and to John through visions, and at the birth of Jesus He warned the Magi and guided Joseph the carpenter by dreams. So I cannot say that God never uses such means, because the Bible itself records that He has.

Peter even quotes Joel on the day of Pentecost, “your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams,” as Acts 2:17 records. The age of the Spirit is described from the outset as one in which dreams and visions have a place. That much is simply biblical fact, and I will not explain it away.

It is worth noticing, though, how God used these means in Scripture. They tended to come at decisive turning points in His plan and to people who were not seeking them, often to announce or confirm something He was doing rather than to give private guidance about daily decisions. Cornelius did not work up a vision, it was given to him, and it sent him straight to the preached word through Peter, as Acts 10:3-5 shows. The pattern is God taking the initiative for the sake of the gospel, not believers cultivating experiences for themselves.

Scripture’s supreme and final authority

Here is the boundary I refuse to move. However God may stir someone through dreams and visions, nothing of the sort ever stands alongside Scripture as a fresh word of equal weight. The Bible is theopneustos, breathed out by God, and the canon is closed and complete. The writer to the Hebrews says God “has spoken to us by his Son,” the full and final revelation.

That settles the order of authority for me. A dream cannot add a new doctrine, cannot correct the Scriptures, and cannot bind anyone’s conscience. “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead,” Jesus says in Luke 16:31. The written Word is the surer testimony, and I have written more on this in my piece on what it means that Scripture is infallible.

Why dreams and visions are not Scripture

It helps to draw a clean line between revelation that is inspired and any impression that is not. The prophets who gave us Scripture spoke under a unique inspiration of the Spirit, so that their words were God’s words. The dreams and visions a believer may have today are not in that category, even when they are genuine and helpful, because the deposit of faith was “once for all delivered to the saints,” as Jude 1:3 puts it.

This is exactly why prophecy in the gathered church is to be weighed rather than simply obeyed. “Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said,” Paul instructs in 1 Corinthians 14:29. You do not weigh Scripture, you submit to it. The very command to test tells me that dreams, visions and prophetic impressions sit on a humbler level.

Does God still guide through these means?

I am a cautious continuationist, so my answer is a careful yes. I believe God can and sometimes does use dreams and visions, particularly, it seems, to reach people in places where the gospel has scarcely been heard, drawing them to seek out a believer or a Bible. I have heard enough credible accounts from the mission field to take this seriously.

But I notice that even in such cases the dream points people towards Christ and His Word, never away from it. The dream is the doorway, the Scriptures are the house. So I never teach anyone to seek dreams and visions as a method of guidance. The ordinary means God has given are His Word, prayer, wise counsel and the providential ordering of our circumstances.

For the believer who already has a Bible and a church, the danger of leaning on dreams and visions for direction is real. It can train us to bypass the slow, sanctifying work of searching the Scriptures and seeking counsel, in favour of a shortcut that feels more immediate. Yet the promise attached to the Word is that it makes us “complete, equipped for every good work,” as 2 Timothy 3:17 says. I would rather send an anxious believer to that sure source than to the shifting ground of their own impressions.

How I test a dream or an impression

When someone brings me a dream or a strong impression they believe is from God, I weigh it the same way I weigh any prophetic word. Does it agree fully with Scripture? Does it exalt Jesus rather than the dreamer? Does it build up the church or feed someone’s pride? “Test the spirits to see whether they are from God,” John urges in 1 John 4:1, “for many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

Anything that fails those tests I set aside without embarrassment, and I love the person all the same. And I am especially wary of the formula “God told me to tell you,” which can be wielded to control others. A humbler way to speak is, “I think the Lord may be pressing this on me, so weigh it.” For the gathered-church side of this, see my article on the gift of prophecy.

Avoiding both ditches

The cessationist ditch tells the suffering soul that God has gone quiet and now only speaks through ink on a page, which can leave people feeling that the living God is distant. The charismatic ditch tells people to chase experiences and treat dreams and visions as a constant stream of personal memos from heaven, which breeds instability and pride.

I want to walk the ridge between the two. God is alive, He is near, and His Spirit indwells His people. Yet He has given us a finished Word that is entirely sufficient, and every impression must bow to it. That is not a cold position, it is a settled and restful one. For more on how revelation works, see my article on how God reveals himself.

Why the sufficiency of Scripture is good news

Some people hear all this and feel that something exciting has been taken away, as if I were locking God inside a book. I want to turn that round, because the sufficiency of Scripture is wonderful news. It means I am not at the mercy of every vivid dream or every confident person claiming a word for me. I have a sure foundation that does not shift with my sleep patterns or my mood, a Word that “is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path,” as Psalm 119:105 says.

It also means that the quietest believer with an open Bible has access to everything they need to know God, love Him and follow Him. They are not waiting for a special vision to catch up with the spiritually gifted. The same Scriptures that fed the apostles feed us, and the same Spirit who inspired them dwells in us to make them plain. That is a settled confidence far steadier than any dream could ever provide.

So, now what?

If you have had a striking dream, do not panic and do not idolise it. Bring it to the Scriptures, test it, and ask trusted believers to help you weigh it. If it agrees with God’s Word and draws you to Jesus, give thanks. If it does not, let it go and lose nothing of value.

Above all, feed on the Word God has already spoken, for it is sure, complete and sufficient for everything you need. Are you hungry for fresh signs because the Scriptures have grown stale to you? If so, the cure is not more dreams and visions but a fresh delight in the Book the Spirit has already given.

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

ESV, Hebrews 1:1-2