How the Holy Spirit Speaks to You through Dreams and Visions
In this teaching David Hernandez explains that dreams and visions are biblical means by which the Holy Spirit can communicate with believers. He begins by citing Acts 2:17‑18, 2 Corinthians 12:1‑4, and Job 33:14‑15 to establish that both dreams and visions appear in Scripture. He outlines four primary purposes: (1) impartation of wisdom or spiritual gifts (e.g., Solomon’s dream of wisdom), (2) revelation of future events (e.g., Joseph interpreting Pharaoh’s dream, Abraham’s warning), (3) provision of timely, relevant information or mystery (e.g., Joseph’s dream, Daniel’s vision), and (4) warning of danger or spiritual attack. Hernandez then gives three practical criteria for recognizing a God‑given dream or vision: (a) it is clear and coherent enough for the Spirit‑filled believer to discern a message, (b) its content does not contradict Scripture, and (c) it ultimately produces faith or a redemptive response. He warns against over‑reliance on dreams, urging believers to ground their lives in the Word, and cautions against false teachers who manipulate others by claiming authority from personal dreams or visions. He describes how positioning oneself in prayer, worship, and service can make one more receptive, though God ultimately decides when and to whom He gives such revelations. The talk includes personal anecdotes (a dream of Kathryn Kuhlman, a prophetic dream of expanding church services, a vision while operating a digital song‑flipping system) to illustrate each purpose. The message concludes with a prayer for increased Holy‑Spirit activity and an invitation to support the ministry.
Chapters
I want to talk to you about how the Holy Spirit speaks through dreams and visions. Here's what we're going to cover. What is the purpose of visions and dreams? How can you tell if your vision or dream is from God? How much emphasis should we put in visions or dreams? Biblically speaking, when are visions and dreams most likely to manifest? We're going to be covering these and more. I know that you're very hungry to hear from the Holy Spirit and you desire to have encounters in his presence. And it's important that when having encounters with the Holy Spirit, that we ground ourselves in the word so that we're relying not only on emotion, not just on experience, but relying upon the truth, the foundation of the word. So let's go to the scripture. Number 1, the first point we're addressing here, are visions and dreams biblical? Acts 2:17-18 say this, in the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. In those days, I will pour out my Spirit even on my servants, men and women alike, and they will prophesy. So here we see both visions and dreams. Here's a portion of scripture concerning visions. This is 2 Corinthians 12:1-4. Paul the Apostle writes, this boasting will do no good, but I must go on. I will reluctantly tell about visions and revelations from the Lord. I was caught up to the 3rd heaven 14 years ago. Whether I was in my body or out of my body, I don't know, only God knows. Yes, only God knows whether I was in my body or outside my body. But I do know that I was caught up to paradise and heard things so astounding that they cannot be expressed in words, things no human is allowed to tell. So there, Paul the Apostle, clearly writing about a vision that he had. In Job 33:14-15, we see a very clear reference to dreams. For God speaks again and again, though people do not recognize it. He speaks in dreams, in visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they lie in their beds. So visions and dreams are biblical. Now, this doesn't mean that we base our lives around dreams and visions. And I'm going to be touching on that point in just a little bit. So what is the difference between a dream and a vision? Quite simply, a dream takes place when you're asleep. A vision takes place when you're awake. Often I would say that a vision is like a very vivid daydream. And I'm speaking here from experience. This is how I would describe it. I would say it's like there is an image overlaid over the natural sight that you have, and it can take place really at any moment. There are many examples that we see in scripture of visions. And then I'm sure you too have had encounters with the Holy Spirit where you saw visions, or maybe God gave you a dream. Let me know about those in the comment section. I'm sure that'll be quite an interesting read. So make sure you share your experiences there. But there is a similarity between the two, and this is something I've observed. And that is that there is this flow that seems to happen when it comes to a dream or a vision. By that, I mean that it's not something that you can force. It's not something that you can work a formula to bring about. It's not something that you can, by your own will, cause to happen. These things happen often when we least expect them. And so this is a sovereign act of God. There is nothing that I can teach you in terms of methodology that would cause you to have more dreams or have more visions. Now I'll show you, biblically speaking, when you're more likely to experience these things, But that by no means is a formula that will cause you to have them. It's more so a positioning of yourself so that you're not distracted, so that your heart is not so hard that you're not listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit when he speaks through dreams and visions. It's not that you're causing it to happen, but it's that you're more discerning and more susceptible to God working in that way. So that's number one, are dreams and visions biblical? Of course. What is the purpose of dreams and visions? I'll list a few here. God can impart through dreams. Now, this is interesting. Take your Bibles, go to 1 Kings chapter 3. I'm gonna read a portion of scripture concerning Solomon. 1 Kings chapter 3, I'm gonna begin at verse number 5. That night, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream. And God said, what do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you. Solomon replied, you showed great and faithful love to your servant, my father David, because he was honest and true and faithful to you. And you have continued to show this great and faithful love to him today by giving him a son to sit on his throne. Now here Solomon is making this request in his dream. Verse 7, now, O Lord my God, you have made me king instead of my father David. But I am like a little child who doesn't know his way around. And here I am in the midst of your own chosen people, a nation so great and numerous they cannot be counted. Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong. For who by himself is able to govern this great people of yours? Verse 10 tells us that the Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for wisdom. So God replied, because you have asked for wisdom in governing my people with justice and have not asked for a long life or wealth or the death of your enemies, I will give you what you asked for. I will give you a wise and understanding heart, such as no one else has had or will ever have. Now, if we look now at verse 12, notice here that the scripture says, The scripture says here, excuse me, and not in verse 12 of 3, but 1 Kings 5:12. So just a couple of chapters later, we see that the scripture says, so the Lord gave wisdom to Solomon, just as he had promised. Now, this is interesting because the experience that King Solomon had in his dream had real life applications or real life consequences. Think about the fact that he had an actual encounter with God in his dream. I can tell you, in many instances, I've had dreams where I could sense the presence of the Holy Spirit with great intensity. Maybe you've had those dreams before. And often when you have a dream where you can sense the presence of the Holy Spirit, you'll notice that when you wake up, you can sense that same presence that you sensed in your dream in the room with you. Years ago, I had a very interesting dream, and I've had a few people reach out to me what they believe the interpretation is. But all I know is I had the sense of the Holy Spirit's power in this dream. Now, let me be very clear here. I am not saying that I actually talked with this person. I'm not saying that I'm communicating with someone who was dead. I'm saying that I had a dream of this person, and this is what happened in the dream. And let's make that clear. because I don't want there to be any misunderstanding about this. But in my dream, I was invited to go visit Ms. Kathryn Kuhlman. And I remember going to her ministry headquarters, at least how I envisioned it in my dream. And I remember walking up to the door of her office, and the door of her office had one of those glass signs that had her name on it. And I remember it just said, K. Kuhlman. And I opened the door. And when I stepped into the room, I could sense the presence of God in the room with me. It was this intense electric-like sensation. And it actually intensified at one point in the dream. I'll tell you that in a moment. But I could see Ms. Kuhlman, she was standing there, her back was facing me. She was wearing that white, long flowy dress. And then she turned. And she had this big smile on her face. And in the dream, she recognized me. She said, David, how are you? And she gave me this big hug, put her arms around me. And when she did, that's when that electricity that I had been sensing in the room just intensified. And I could sense the presence of the Holy Spirit, love and joy and peace. It was quite euphoric. And then? I woke up. And when I did, I could sense that same intensity in the room with me. Perhaps you've had a dream like that, but there are things that can happen in our dreams that have real life implications. So case in point, Solomon, he had an actual encounter with God in his dream. He had an actual experience that brought about impartation. So that's number one, God can impart through dreams. Solomon encountered God in his dream. Now, this is what's interesting. He didn't necessarily just have a dream of God. He encountered God in his dream. And so I think that's quite an exciting reality when you really consider it, that tonight when you go to sleep, that you could potentially have an encounter with God in your dream. In fact, I'm gonna pray toward the end of this teaching, that the Lord would grace you to be positioned and susceptible to visions and dreams as he wills. So I'm gonna pray that you see an increase of that, and we'll ask God to grant that in Jesus' name. Number 2, God can reveal the future through dreams. Now, there have been times, maybe this has happened to you before, where I will have a dream of someone, Who I haven't spoken to in years. And then when I wake up, I see that I've received a text or a phone call from them. Or maybe there'll be something that happens in my dream, and then it plays out in real life in the next few days. Maybe you often have dreams that predict the future. Maybe you see things before they happen as you sleep. This could be a sign that God is speaking to you in your dreams, but God can reveal the future through dreams. In Genesis chapter 41, we see that Pharaoh sends for Joseph, and Joseph is summoned from prison. He stands before Pharaoh, interprets his dream, and you can find this reference in Genesis chapter 41, verses 14 through 28. You'll see that God can reveal the future because that's exactly what happened in the case of Pharaoh. Joseph goes and stands before Pharaoh. He interprets his dream. And because of the interpretation of the dream, namely that he saw famine coming after years of prosperity, the land of Egypt was able to prepare, excuse me, the kingdom of Egypt was able to prepare for that which was coming because of the revelation that God gave him through his servant Joseph, through the interpretation of a dream. So God can reveal the future. He can even reveal people's motives, anything. You know, maybe you've had a dream of someone who you love, and in the dream, there's just this negative manifestation. Maybe in the dream, they're harming you, or maybe in the dream, they're attacking you in some way, or maybe in the dream, you just see something evil on them. Now, this doesn't necessarily mean that absolutely positively they're against you, But it is something to consider, especially if there have been other signs that are lining up with this. But God can reveal the future through dreams. God can reveal anything He wants through a dream. And we see that happening in the case I just referenced. Now, I myself had a dream concerning the ministry. In my dream, I walked into a church building that looked a lot like one of the church buildings that we had often used to host our Encounter Services. Now, if you don't know what our Encounter Services are, This is where we gather as a people. I preach the salvation message. I preach to the believer to encourage them. We pray for the sick. We pray for those who need deliverance and the power of the Holy Spirit moves. People have encounters with the Holy Spirit in these services. Well, at this time, there weren't more than maybe just a couple hundred people attending these encounter services anytime we hosted them. And so in my dream, I'm standing in this church building, And again, it looked a lot like the church building that we had often hosted these services in. And I'm looking around, it's empty, nobody's there yet. And as I'm looking around, suddenly the walls begin to expand and chairs begin to pop up out of the ground. It almost looked like, how should I word this? It's like what a plant would look like sprouting from the ground. with time-lapsed footage. You ever seen one of those videos where a plant is growing really fast and it sprouts out of the ground and then just kind of appears? And because of the time-lapse footage, what took months happens in just a matter of seconds. Well, this is what it looked like in my dream. It didn't have that time-lapse jittery effect, but I saw the chairs coming out of the ground, growing, and then resting on top of the ground. And so chairs began to sprout all over the room, as the walls began to expand. And so I shared this with the team, and this in fact marked a turning point where we began to see greater and greater size crowds come to these services, so much so that we had to eventually go and host in conference centers and arenas. And that's what's happening today. We're hosting these large-scale events, but I had grown discouraged because after years and years and years of hosting these services, They didn't seem to be catching much momentum. And then the Lord revealed through a dream that eventually what was lacking in momentum would ultimately become a movement. Number 3, God provides relevant information and mysteries in dreams. Matthew 2:19-20, when Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt. Get up, the angel said, take the child and his mother, back to the land of Israel, because those who were trying to kill the child are dead. So this isn't necessarily a warning. This is just kind of a— it was almost as if the Lord was giving to Joseph the all clear, like, you're good to move about now, because those who were trying to kill the child, they're now dead. And so this was just a relevant piece of information that helped in Joseph's decision-making process. Daniel 2:28, However, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will take place in the latter days. This was your dream and the visions in your mind while on your bed. And then of course, the interpretation is given. So the Lord will give you relevant information. So it's not necessarily just impartation and then the revealing of the future, but also relevant information that has to do with right here and now. Going back to what I mentioned a few moments ago, it could very well be that the Lord is giving you relevant information concerning individuals that maybe in one sense are claiming to be for you, but are actually against you. People who claim to have your back, but are having conversations about you and thinking that you don't know. People who claim to be your friends saying they're with you, but then maybe they have things in their heart That you don't see. Now, I'm not saying that to make you paranoid. And again, I don't think that we should base our entire lives around dreams and visions, but typically what begins to happen is you'll get something in your spirit, so to speak, or a thought in your mind. You begin to pick up on little things, things that seem strange until you realize what's happening. And then ultimately in the dream, it's like the missing piece of the puzzle can come together. Again, I emphasize, don't go getting paranoid now and Don't get mad at your spouse and don't get mad at your friends just because you had a dream about them. Be discerning, be level-headed, don't get emotionally wrapped up in your dreams, don't put too much stock in them. But again, this is something that should be noted. God does often speak through dreams. And what's interesting now, actually, and I mentioned this actually the last time I taught this lesson, but it hasn't stopped yet. I get a lot of messages. This is strange. I get a lot of messages from people that tell me that I'm in their dreams. Now, I don't think I'm literally in their dreams, But a lot of people tell me they have dreams of where we get to meet or where we get to pray with one another, or where I give them a warning or a message or something like that. So it's just been an interesting thing that's happening, but I get those messages on social media all the time. I don't know what to make of it. It was just an interesting thought that I had. And for sure, I'm sure the Lord will reveal it. And sometimes I think it could be the Lord, who knows? But again, number one, God can impart through dreams. Number 2, God can reveal the future through dreams. Number 3, God provides relevant information and mysteries in dreams. And number 4, God can warn through dreams. Now, this is different than just telling the future. The Lord can give you a warning about something that maybe, something that maybe could bring physical harm to you, or maybe could damage your reputation, or maybe could bring about a great season of heartache. And so the Lord speaks to us, again, referencing Job 33:14-15, where it's written there that God speaks again and again. So sometimes He'll consistently warn us, and sometimes there's nothing to do but prepare. I mean, as is in the case of Abraham, look at Genesis chapter 15, go there. Genesis chapter 15, verses 12 through 14. As the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a terrifying darkness came over him. Then the Lord said to Abram, you can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years. But I will punish the nation that enslaves them. And in the end, they will come away with great wealth. Now, here, this is interesting because this is a warning that the Lord is giving to him, but there's little more to do than just prepare. And sometimes the Lord will just show something to you, And he doesn't expect you to confront it. He doesn't expect you to act upon it. He doesn't expect you, he never expects you to worry about it, but maybe he's just showing you something so that you can pray over it, so that you can prepare for it, something that's on the way, that's just inevitable, and he's just showing you what's happening. On a side note, there is a common misconception concerning dreams, Now I know that at the top of this message, I mentioned to you that I'm gonna be getting into some of the details as to how you can know a dream or a vision is from God. We'll get into that in just a moment. I'll give you 3 ways to know that, but jumping a little bit ahead, one of the common misconceptions concerning whether or not a dream is or isn't from God is this idea that any dream from God will have a pleasant feeling. And that's not necessarily always the case. And I can reference Abram here. Genesis 15:12 says that there was a terrifying darkness that came down over him, meaning he was terrified. It was dreadful. He felt a heavy weight come on him. And I'm speaking strictly using that word terrified as my guideposts there. We can surmise, I think it stands to reason, that if a terror comes over him, that he feels that darkness and heaviness too. So just because there is a negative emotional reaction, or excuse me, an emotionally negative reaction to a dream, doesn't mean that it's not from God. So some will tell you, oh, if it's a dream from God, there'll be this perfect peace, you'll feel perfectly stable, there'll be no issue. Now, I'm not saying that you'll lose your peace, But I am saying that the dream itself isn't necessarily always going to invoke the most positive of your emotions. Sometimes the dream will invoke negative emotions and it can still be from God. So that's not the way to tell. So let's get right into that. How can you tell if your vision or your dream is from God? I'm going to give you 3 ways to know right now, but first, make sure that you've left a like on this content. By you interacting with the content, you're helping to spread the teachings even further. So if you think teachings like this need to spread further in the church, just leave a like on the video right now, and that's going to help more people to see it. Also, I don't want you to miss any of the teachings we release. I don't want you to miss the live streams of the Encounter Services where the power of the Holy Spirit moves tremendously. Don't miss what's coming from this ministry. Let's stay connected. Subscribe to my channel on YouTube and make sure that you click that notification bell when you do subscribe so that you continue to receive the content. Number 3, again, how can you tell if your dream or vision is from God? Number 1, if your dream or your vision is from God, it will be clear and coherent. In Genesis 40:8, The Bible says, and they replied, we both had dreams last night, but no one can tell us what they mean. Interpreting dreams is God's business, Joseph replied. Go ahead and tell me your dreams. In the case of Pharaoh and Joseph, Pharaoh had a hard time discerning the meaning of the dream, but Joseph didn't. Why? Because Joseph had the Spirit of God within him. In the case of Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar didn't understand what his dream meant, but Daniel did. Why? Because Daniel had the Spirit of God within him. For the world, understanding God-given dreams or understanding supernatural dreams is a very difficult task. They have to rely on books that most often are completely inaccurate. Let me go off on a tangent to say that Please don't get all wrapped up in dream interpretation books, and please don't get all wrapped up in New Ageism disguised as Christianity. Stick to the Word. You have the Holy Spirit. He's gonna help you understand it. The Bible doesn't give us necessarily a chart on symbolism tied to meanings or anything like that that's ultra-specific in that way. You're not gonna rely on formulas. You're not gonna rely on systems. You're not gonna rely on charts. You're gonna rely upon the Holy Spirit within you. So dreams from God are always clear for the Spirit-filled. Now, this doesn't mean that you're always going to have the full picture, but this does mean that the part of the picture that you have will be clear. You've heard it said, we know in part and we prophesy in part. Well, that doesn't mean that we can just release incoherent ramblings and expect that at some point it's going to make sense, because the in part that we have been given will be understood by us. The Bible says, we know in part, not we guess in part, or we're confused in part, or we ask questions in part. It says, we know in part. So while we might not have the full picture, the part of the picture that we do receive will have a coherency to it. So live right and your dreams will be clear. If there's not perfect clarity on the message, there will at least be a coherency to the dream to where you can break it down and have some semblance of a message or some semblance of chronology or some semblance of structure. Why? Because God understands how to communicate. God is perfectly capable of getting a message to you if he wants you to have it. And this, by the way, is why you shouldn't spend so much time fretting over the dreams that you don't understand. I get people messaging me all the time, and I'm not angry about it, I'm just concerned for the body of Christ. When I get messages all the time from people fretting and panicking, and you can hear the panic in the message they write, they'll say something like, Brother David, please help me, I can't sleep, I'm tormented by this thought, I'm distraught, Because I just can't understand what this dream meant. And I'll say, okay, well, what was the dream? And they're like, well, I was standing on a cliff and the cliff was a mountain, only the mountain had a river above it. And there was an angel, but the angel was smiling, but I knew he was angry. And I was wearing a cloak and I was eating bread, but it wasn't bread, it was made out of rocks that were turned to bread. And then they go on and on with these types of incoherent, I don't mean that as an insult, I mean that in the literal sense, they're incoherent. dreams, and then they are worried that they can't get an interpretation. And I'll ask, how long ago did you have that dream? And often it's like, well, it was a year ago, or it was 2 years ago, or it was 9 months ago. And I'm thinking, don't you trust in God's ability to communicate? Isn't God perfectly capable of communicating with you? Trust not in your ability to interpret the dream. Trust in God's ability to to speak to you through the dream. So we're not fretting, we're not panicking, we're not pulling our hair out, we're not basing our whole life around an interpretation and waiting for the meaning to come to us, or else imagining that we can't continue in our calling with God. If God wants to get a message to you, he'll get the message to you. If God wants to deliver a message through your dream, he'll deliver the message through your dream. If God wants to deliver a portion of a message through your dream, that portion that he delivers will be coherent. So again, I'm not saying that you're always gonna have the full picture of what the dream means. I'm saying that there'll be a coherency to it, consistency to the structure of the dream, and you will at least understand the part in and of itself, if not as how it pertains to the whole. So if you don't understand the dream, live right and ask God to reveal it. And if God reveals it, he delivered the message. If God doesn't deliver an interpretation for it, stop fretting about it, write it down and say, Lord, I know one day you'll reveal the meaning, and then move forward. But don't pause your whole life. Don't stress about the dream. Don't worry about missing it because you have the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is perfectly capable of communicating with you. So if after that, if the dream still isn't clear, Then leave it in God's hands and be at peace. Write that in the comment section. I want you to write this to yourself. Just write relax. Type that one simple word, just relax. It's okay. If you don't get that right away, God's not gonna be angry with you because you didn't get the message, because why? He knows how to communicate the message. Number 2, let me actually jump back to that point. I wanna make sure it's perfectly clear that I'm not saying that you'll always have how the dream immediately applies to the situation in your life that you think it applies to. Nor am I saying that when you have a dream, if it's from God, that you're always going to be able to find where it fits in terms of God's instructions to you. I'm saying that there's at least some coherency to it that's eventually revealed by God. And if it's not immediately revealed, it's not a reason to panic. So that's number one. It's clear and coherent. Number 2, it's gonna be biblical. God's not gonna tell you in a dream to divorce your wife without biblical grounds. God's not gonna tell you in a dream to go and get drunk. God is not gonna tell you in a dream to divide from the church if it's a perfectly healthy church. And if you're just offended because they're not doing everything the way you want them to do it. God's not gonna tell you to go and gossip about someone. He's not going to contradict his word. In 2 Timothy 3:16-17, we read, all scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong, and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work. Nothing God will ever speak, whether through a dream or a vision or an angel or a miracle, nothing that God will ever speak will contradict his word. So if the conclusion, if the conclusion of the message of the dream contradicts anything in scripture, it cannot possibly be from God. And this you have to be careful of because people place so much stock in their dreams, especially if a dream is vivid, especially if a dream is memorable, like it sticks in their head, they may interpret that as being definitely from God. And that's dangerous because we don't measure whether a dream is from God by how it sticks in our minds or how vivid it was. We measure it mostly upon whether or not it aligns with his word. So that's number 1, it'll be clear and coherent. Number 2, the dream will be biblical. The message delivered through the dream will be biblical. Number 3, it will be faith-producing. Now, this is separate than emotions that you might feel, because it's possible that you might feel a little bit of angst because of what God reveals in the dream. Like for example, If God reveals in a dream that you're to move to a different state and you know it's God confirming something, prophets have already spoken it, you've already been sensing it, and then it happens in a dream and you're like, okay, I know this is God. And you know, by the Holy Spirit that it's God, there might be a little bit of anxiety there. There might be a little bit of apprehension. I'm not talking about the bondage. I'm talking about just the emotion that arises naturally in certain situations where we're facing uncertainty. So you may in that moment sense a little anxiety. If God reveals that there is demonic activity in your family, that's not gonna feel so good when that's revealed in the dream. If God is revealing something to you about a cheating spouse, that's not gonna feel good when you get that interpretation from the dream or that message from the dream, excuse me. But what will ultimately happen is God, through the message that he delivers to the dream, will always, always, always produce faith. So even if what you are given, even if what is revealed is negative and causes negative emotions, the message of the dream will ultimately be unto redemption. The message of the dream will ultimately be unto the glory of God. Take, for example, what we just read concerning Abram. He falls into a deep sleep. This terror comes over him. God reveals to Abram, that the children of Israel would face generations of slavery. And then verse 14 says, but I will punish the nation that enslaves them. And in the end, they will come away with great wealth. So ultimately there's redemption to the message that God is delivering. And so there will always be faith, Romans 10:17. So faith comes by hearing, that is hearing the good news about Christ. Now here, this is talking about the message message of salvation through Christ, but the biblical principle that we can take away from that specific portion of scripture and then generally apply to our lives is simply this, that God will give you the faith for what he promises. And when he declares a message, he'll also bring with it the faith to believe that message. So even if it's a warning, you'll be given the faith to correct whatever God is warning against. Even if it's a warning, You'll be given the instruction for prayer and preparation so that you're not caught off guard. So even though there might be negative emotions attached to these dreams, ultimately the dream will be faith-producing. So number 1, the dreams will be clear and coherent. Number 2, the dreams will be biblically aligned. And number 3, they will be faith-producing. Now let me make this point again one more time, because I know sometimes we have to hear things a few times before it settles in our spirit. I know I'm that way. Do not fret if you don't get the interpretation right away, write it down, set it aside, pray over it, and then trust God. Now I wanna talk to you about how much emphasis we should place on our dreams. Don't base your life on dreams and visions, base your life on the word. God will often use dreams and visions to confirm biblical truths, or maybe even to reveal specific information that couldn't be found in chapter and verse, as it pertains to your life. He can tailor-make information for you, but ultimately we live by the Word. So the authority of divine dreams only goes so far, it's limited. In Deuteronomy chapter number 13, beginning at verse number 1, we read, Suppose there are prophets among you, or those who dream dreams about the future, and they promise you signs or miracles, and the predicted signs or miracles occur, So these prophets are accurate. If they then say, come, let us worship other gods, gods you have not known before, do not listen to them. The Lord your God is testing you to see if you truly love him with all your heart and soul. Serve only the Lord your God and fear him. Obey his commands, listen to his voice, and cling to him. So here, The people of God are being given a warning. Even if someone is able to predict something by way of their dreams, or by principle, their visions, don't believe them if they say something that contradicts the truth. So the authority of dreams can only go so far. In fact, many have been spiritually abused by people claiming to be apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, and evangelists. Because they'll use their dreams or visions as a way to produce fear in people. They'll use their dreams or visions as a way to manipulate people. And let me just be honest, I think that many times these so-called dreams and visions that they claim to have had didn't even occur. And they came from their own imaginations, or worse, they were just crafted for the purpose of manipulating God's people. Be very careful of that. Don't allow someone to control you just because they tell you, I had a dream about you. Don't allow someone to put fear in your heart just because someone says, you know, God gave me a vision about you. And if you don't do A, B, and C, you're gonna end up experiencing the consequence of X, Y, and Z. Well, that's manipulation. Now, sometimes it can be from God. I've had dreams where I've approached people and I say, hey, listen, the Lord showed me this and this is what I see. And the Lord gives them a warning through that dream. Now that's different because this is between people who know each other. The love of God is there. There's not this motivation to try to control and guilt and shame and, you know, ultimately govern in a cult-like fashion God's people. So just be very careful with people who claim dreams and visions, and then use even the fulfillment of those dreams and visions as a means to gain authority and credibility in your eyes that they might control you and tell you what to do. That's often done, and we have to be very careful of that. And if you're under that, I'm saying this as a servant of God, as your brother in Christ, it's time to come out from under that control. Because maybe they told you things like, if you leave them, you'll be cursed. Or if you don't obey them, calamity will come on you. And they tell you, God gave me this dream about you. God gave me this vision about you. Isn't it interesting that in many cases, probably for the most part, that whenever they have a dream or vision about you, it's always about how you should draw more closely to them. That's an issue. Come out of that cult in Jesus' name. You cannot claim authority, spiritual or church authority, from dreams or visions. Colossians 2:16-18 says this, or 16 through 18 say this. Don't let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths, For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality. Don't let anyone condemn you by insisting on pious self-denial or the worship of angels, saying they have had visions about these things. Their sinful minds have made them proud. Jude 1:8, in the same way, listen to this, in the same way, these people who claim authority from their dreams, live immoral lives, defy authority, and scoff at supernatural dream or supernatural beings. So not every dream has spiritual significance. Sometimes it's just your mind processing things. And you know, we've all had those strange dreams, but sometimes your mind really is just processing, breaking down the information from the day. So let's not become obsessed. Again, if God wants to speak to you, he'll speak clearly. 1 Samuel 28:6, he asked the Lord what he should do, but the Lord refused to answer him either by dreams or by sacred lots or by the prophets. So if God wants to speak to you, he's gonna speak to you. If God wants to give you a dream, he's gonna give you a dream. If God wants to give you a vision, he's gonna give you a vision. If God doesn't want to share a message with you, maybe for timing reasons, or maybe it's just something he doesn't have to say to you, He's not gonna share that. If God doesn't wanna give you a dream tonight, he's not going to. If God doesn't wanna give you a vision tomorrow morning in your prayer time, he's not going to give that to you either. So there's nothing we can do to force him to do this, but there are things that we can do to make sure that we are more pliable in the hand of God, submitted to him so that he can entrust us with these messages. So this is a little bit of a nuanced point. So let me make it clearly because I don't wanna cause any confusion. It is not a contradiction to say that only God decides how dreams and visions are distributed, and at the same time say that we can position ourselves to experience more dreams and visions. Now that might sound like a contradiction. Let me tell you why it's not. Because it's still God choosing to distribute the dreams and visions, But he chooses to distribute those dreams and visions to the people who are more submitted to him. Now, this isn't always the case. The Lord, in many instances in scripture, will give a dream to the ungodly or give a vision to someone who doesn't serve him, right? This is, or maybe not so much visions, but dreams more so. So if God wants to do it, he's gonna do it. If he doesn't, he's not going to. But he entrusts these kinds of messages To the people who serve him. He entrusts these kinds of messages to the people who are following after his ways. So yes, God still decides who gets dreams and visions. No, there's not anything that you can do to force him to give you dreams and visions. But if you live in a certain way, then you become one who God can entrust more, and he will choose to entrust you with these things. So again, a nuanced point, but I think worth making. So look at Paul, Paul was praying. Acts 22:17-22. After I returned to Jerusalem, I was praying in the temple and fell into a trance. I saw a vision of Jesus saying to me, hurry, leave Jerusalem, for the people here won't accept your testimony about me. But Lord, I argued, they certainly know that in every synagogue I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you, and I was in complete agreement when your witness Stephen was killed. I stood by and kept the coats they took off when they stoned him. But the Lord said to me, go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles. The crowd listened until Paul said that word. Then they all began to shout, away with such a fellow! He isn't fit to live. So here we see that in a time of prayer, the Lord gave a vision to Paul. So you'll see this quite often in the New Testament when someone is praying, when they're in the Spirit, that there is this susceptibility, this pliability, this submission, this positioning of oneself unto God, to where He then chooses to say, I can entrust you with that, or I can entrust that to you. John was worshiping, Revelation chapter 1. We see that he was worshiping, he was in the Spirit, when he sees this vision, this revelation of Jesus. Now, there have been times when I've had visions while worshiping the Lord. So prayer, worship, and then serving. Look at Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah the prophet was serving when suddenly he sees the train of God's robe fill the temple. I recall when I was serving at my local church, and this is back when I was doing The digital song flipping. Let me qualify what that means. So in late '90s, early 2000s, many churches used what was called an overhead projector. It was an old analog piece of technology. Basically, a light would be projected from out of a box overhead through a magnifier and onto a screen. So I would take these transparent pieces of paper that had the words of worship lyrics on them. And when I would put them on the box, the light would shine behind them, project overhead, and people were able to read the words during the worship service. So that was my job. I was called the song flipper. I think, uh, that's just kind of a funny name, but that's what I was. Now we upgraded eventually, our church did, uh, to digital. So I was using a laptop and we used slides. I would prepare the slide for the worship service. And I would just push a button, an arrow, to make sure that the songs were in sync with what they were singing in the congregation. I'll never forget this. I'm standing there and I'm just serving. I'm not doing anything that anyone might label as super spiritual. I mean, I'm singing, I'm worshiping, I'm just loving the Lord and turning the songs. Keeping the slides in sync with the service. And then I sensed this drawing to look. I looked to my left and I saw coming from that side of the room, it was, there was a door on the other side, coming from that side of the room in the sound room, I saw this like white flame coming toward me. And in the middle of the white flame, was the face of a lion. And it just jolted at me and went into me. I can tell you that, yes, if I'm looking and observing and trying to find maybe a pattern, I might looking back in hindsight, be able to see some type of shift in my life and ministry from there. But all I know is that there was this vision that occurred. I didn't do anything to try to make it happen. I just saw it. And there it was. And that's what happened while I was serving. So this is, again, a nuanced point. I'm not saying you can, I'm not saying here's the formula to have more dreams and visions. I'm saying, here's the formula, biblically speaking, to be a spiritual person. Pray, worship, serve. And as you're doing those things, God will look and notice, and he may— Speak. as a response to what you're doing, decide on his own to entrust you with these. So again, God decides, but you can still position, and those 2 points are perfectly consistent. So be in prayer. And in fact, I've noticed that my visions intensify in seasons of lingering prayer. These are seasons where I'm praying for greater amounts of time and more consistently throughout the day. As I increase that prayer capacity, I've noticed that visions and dreams are more Even as I'm falling asleep, there are things that flash before my mind. And there have been times even where I'll wake up and there's an outline of a sermon in my head, and that's just the Lord's doing. And so I pray you too would begin to encounter that. Now, I wanna pray with you in just a moment. I wanna pray that the Lord would give you this heart to be able to submit yourself to him in such a way as to where you're having spiritual encounters. But I wanna make one more point here. And just kind of go through some of the common dreams that believers are having that they often talk to me about. These are the common dreams I hear from people messaging me. This is a common one right here. People often message me telling me they're having dreams of themselves casting out demons. And they say, what does that mean? Now, again, we don't go by formula. I'm not saying here's a chart or a dream book. But more often than not, I found that these are people who are being called into a season where they are to be practicing deliverance ministry in a greater measure than they were before. I've also seen messages from people where they have dreams where they're seeing healing miracles, where they're praying for someone and they're coming out of a wheelchair. I would say it's similar to what I said about deliverance ministry, but as it pertains to healing. Often I'll hear this one too, where individuals see like a sea of people, a massive crowd, and they're standing on a stage preaching. Well, that's a dream. Steve, you yourself had one where you were in the Middle East. Yeah. Right? You had a dream you're in the Middle East. I think you were worshiping, right? And so, you know, you see a mass of people and there's this, you can't even see the end of it. Often that can be, and I'm not saying this is definite, but pray into this, it could be that the Lord is calling you to preach the gospel. Others tell me that they're seeing like a dark or evil figure in their room. Usually this is a sign that there's a spiritual attack. And again, don't panic, don't fret, don't look for formulas, just pray and ask the Lord to protect you and stand strong and put on the armor of God. So, So dreams can be holy or unholy, depending upon what you feed yourself throughout the day. So if you're constantly putting things into your mind that are ungodly, that will affect your dreams. But if you're putting things into your mind that are godly, that will affect your dreams too. So Lord, I pray, let's pray right now. Lord, I pray that you would begin to take your people into deeper encounters in your presence. Father, give them a praying spirit. Give them a hunger for the deeper things of your Holy Spirit. Precious Lord, I pray that you would begin to speak to your people in dreams and in visions. Them catch glimpses of your glory. Let them catch glimpses of the heavenly realm. Send them messages, Lord. Send them warnings. Lord, I pray that you would cause your people to enter a season. I sense this so strong. Receive this now. Lord, I pray that you would cause your people to enter a season Of intense, frequent Holy Spirit activity. Pray that right now. Come on, agree with me. Lord, let them come into a season of intense, frequent Holy Spirit activity. Let it be done in your name, Jesus, we pray. And the church said, amen. Well, listen, I wanna take a moment moment to ask you to get involved with what this ministry is doing. We as a ministry are seeing great impact all over the world. I wish I could share with you all of the testimonies that come in. I mean, I received just the other day someone who had been delivered from vaping, someone who had finally come to Jesus after years of rejecting him, another who had been healed another who had been set free, another who had come into an encounter with the Holy Spirit. I get messages all the time from people saying, I finally received the gift of tongues, or I finally stepped out into my ministry calling. Bottom line, this ministry is making big impact. And so I wanna invite you to be a part of this effort, to be a part of something that's bigger than all of us. Will you consider right now, if you haven't done this already, will you consider right now signing up to become a monthly ministry supporter? Listen, the future is bright. God has some major things on the horizon for us, and I know your future is bright too. So let's join hands together. Help us win the soul of a generation. Help us spread the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We do this through events around the world. We do this through media such as you're watching now. We do this through our Holy Spirit School where we offer free online courses. We do this through our internship program. There are many outreaches and expressions of this ministry, even charity work that this ministry does, such as we've seen where this ministry has helped dig wells in Ethiopia. It's helped people who who couldn't pay rent and who were suffering and who were trying to just buy something to eat. There is a lot of work that goes on through this ministry like that, that many people don't even know about, but you can be a part of it all, everything, by partnering with our ministry. So will you help us expand the kingdom of God? Help us continue to see favor. Help us continue to win souls. Help us continue to spread the word. You can go right now To davidhernandezministries.com/partner. And I wanna challenge you to step out of your comfort zone. I know maybe there might be that little hesitation in you. Don't hesitate, step out of your comfort zone. Go to davidhernandezministries.com/partner right now. In fact, just open the webpage. That's all I'm asking you to do. Davidhernandezministries.com/partner, and just open the webpage, and then ask yourself, What can I do? Ask the Holy Spirit, what should I do? And then do what he says. You can also give a single gift by going to davidhernandezministries.com/donate.
