“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.” Daniel 7:1
I’ve been reading Pete Greig’s book, *How to Hear God*. His chapter “Hearing God’s Whisper in Dreams” is fascinating, because it’s something we rarely speak of as Christians.
Greig picks up on this: “In Bible times, dreams were one of the most consistent and powerful ways in which God communicated … [yet] they are perhaps one of the least respected and least practised ways of listening to God in the West today.” As he points out, though, the “primary mark of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all flesh in these last days, according to Joel, cited by Peter, is not speaking in tongues, shaking or falling to the ground. It is an increase in dreams and visions. If you are filled with the Spirit, you should therefore expect God to speak to you in this way.”
Greig provokes readers to take dreams more seriously as a way of hearing from God. Since we often cannot remember our dreams, he suggests writing them down – keeping a notebook next to the bed.
And this (finally) gets me to Daniel. If I’ve ever noticed the comment at the end of Daniel 7:1 about Daniel writing down his dream, I guess I’ve viewed it as a general reference to the way many Biblical prophecies have been written down in Scripture. But maybe it’s more grassroots than this. Perhaps Daniel needed to write down his dream so he didn’t forget it the next morning and could then prayerfully consider it and seek revelation.
“Speak, Lord” – however You choose – “for your servant is listening” (1 Sam 3:10).
Sue McPherson
Pete Greig (2022), How to Hear God: a simple guide for normal people, London: Hodder & Stoughton.
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