The Lord Appeared in a Dream

Over and over the Bible makes the statement, “The Lord appeared in a dream”. The Lord appeared in a dream to Gideon, to Joseph, to Daniel, to Jesus earthly father Joseph, to Paul, and to prophets. Do you think God still appears to people in dreams? The word appeared could also be translated “showed” or “to lighten”. In other words God revealed His will to them in this unique way. He showed them things they were in the dark about. Rose and I have lost something and looked everywhere we could think of with no avail. A number of times after we asked God to reveal the location, in a dream during the night the places were revealed to us. In the passage of Matthew concerning Jesus earthly father Joseph, again and again the Bible says God appeared to him in a dream. Joseph always responded with instant obedience and God rewarded him with safety and blessing as a result.

“While he was thinking about this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary to be your wife. For it is by the Holy Spirit that she has conceived.”

(Matthew 1:20)

A married couple from India moved to Canada so the husband Bhupinder Singh could work for a major bank as an Information technology professional. One night, after praying and reading their Sikhi scriptures, his wife Mona had a dream. In this dream, the Lord Jesus himself came to her and told her about what she has been praying for. At that point, they had never read the Bible or knew much about the Lord Jesus or gone to any church. She immediately realized that the Lord Jesus is the true, real & living God. “That’s why He knows what I have been praying as per my Sikh scriptures. She immediately accepted the Lord Jesus. Bhupinder thought, I have got everything from my own Guru / religion, so why do we need a new God?" Bhupinder began to seek out the truth about his wife¹s new revelation. He called a local church and spoke with a pastor. Bhupinder asked him,"Do I have to change my religion or my dress code to come to your faith?" He was told that Christianity is not a religion but a direct relationship with God and that whatever kind of dress he wore, it was okay. "I wanted some proof that what the pastor told me was correct". So I asked him to give me a Bible. He gave me a copy of New Testament. ”

After I started reading the New Testament, all my questions were answered in the first hundred pages. I soon realized that all the books I¹ve read earlier are just derived from the Bible. Now I am reading the original book.” "My wife and I started studying the Bible seriously," Bhupinder says. "Soon we stopped reading and following other scriptures. We started doing everything according to the Bible. Our entire life has changed. We spend a lot of time reading the word of God. We meditate on it and use it in our day to day lives." "The Lord has also blessed us. He is using us to bring lost souls to Him in our social circle & South Asian Communities”, says Bhupinder. “We are seeing a big change in their life through physical and most importantly spiritual healings, answered prayers and quick resolution of issues by blessings from true & living Lord.”

Whether through dreams or through His Word, God is still speaking to his people. Will we hear his voice and respond with instant obedience like Joseph did? God’s power and presence will flood our lives when we respond in this way to His voice. Joseph was an ordinary man, but God used him in extraordinary ways because of his obedience. When God appears to you and me, will we respond like that? God still used ordinary people to do extraordinary things when we are eager to obey Him.

Selah,

Al Yoder

9/15/2011