Dream of Me and Live

 

Joel 2:28-29 (NASB) 28 " And it will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions. 29 "And even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.

 

Knowing that we are now living in the end times, many western Christians are speculating just how far we are now into the end times. I agree that the long shadows of the four horseman of the apocalypse  (Rev. 6:1-6) seem to be nearly gone and about to transpire. This leads to conjecture about the possibility of the Antichrist (2 Thess. 2:3-4) not only being alive right now in our world, but also that he is just about to be revealed. With this in mind, some are jumping on a shaky bandwagon asserting that a rabbi named Chaim Kanievsky claimed before his death (on March 18, 2022) that he had been in discussions with the Messiah himself. The problem with this assertion is that Rabbi Kanievsky made that claim two years before his death, and he was not the only rabbi who made that claim. Another highly-revered rabbi, Yitzhak Kaduri, made that claim 16 years ago, and even supplied a mysterious acrostic with the Messiah’s Jewish name that was released one year after his death (January 18, 2006). To the chagrin of thousands of Jews, the name was Yehoshua, the Hebrew equivalent of Jesus. If you have the time, please watch the fascinating documentary about it. When you consider that God is supposedly using highly-revered rabbis as shaliachs (messengers or emissaries) of His soon coming, then it makes sense. We must be careful not to dismiss dreams and visions as “unbiblical” since there are multiple examples of them in the Bible used to accomplish God’s purposes. For the context of this article, I refer to dreams and visions here specifically for the purpose of pointing and preparing people to Christ for salvation in areas where there are no missionaries, or where living conditions are hostile or dangerous to those who might seek Christ.

 

While westerners, by tradition, tend to be skeptical of dreams and visions, they are accepted as quite credible, revered, and powerful in the eastern world. Westerners also tend to be skeptical of methods of spiritual contact that do not involve Christian missionaries, humanitarian workers, students, group or individual teaching, and distribution of Bibles and tracts. These may be the “standard” methods of evangelization, but they are certainly not the only methods. Some are very creative. Floating Bibles by balloons (also here) or printed in clothing and satellite communications are just a few creative ways to contact difficult to reach people with the gospel.

 

Dreams and visions have been powerful phenomena in the Muslim world for more than 30 years with Jesus (known in Islam as the prophet Isa) appearing to, calling to Himself, or instructing people how to contact Christians. The number of Muslims, in particular, coming to Christ has been greatly underreported, but is an increasing reality the further we are into the end times. Who are we to dismiss the Lord of the harvest (Matt. 9:37-38) participating Himself in gleaning His harvest? Here are a few links to “Isa Dream” testimonies:

 

Trinity Radio

Dinesh D’Souza

Tom Doyle

Saudi Muslima

Ahmed

Ali – CBN Report

 

In an age characterized by rampant deception, we are commanded not to believe every spirit, but to test (dokimazo = analyze, approve) them whether they are from God of not (1 Jn. 4:1). Although sound seasoned Christian counsel and prayer are vital, the only way to approve for certain is by using the unchanging commands of scripture. Although not all inclusive, here is a list of basic spiritual tests to help one decide if dreams and visions are scripturally valid:

 

1.   Glorifies God and points to Jesus (Jn. 16:13-15)

2.   Proclaims Jesus as Christ (Messiah) coming in the flesh (1 Jn. 4:2) – not just a prophet or only a good moral man, but God in the flesh

3.   Message and experience validate scripture (2 Tim. 3:16)

4.   Will produce good fruit (Matt. 7:16-20)

5.   Points people to repentance, humility, and holiness (Ro. 2:4; Jas. 4:6,10; Heb. 12:10,14)

 

What are your thoughts about this?

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