Dreams And Interpretations by Pastor Dolapo Lawal: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Father, in the name of Jesus, let your word give light. Let your word be life in our hearts. Let there be utterance — say more than is being said to your people. In Jesus' mighty name.

Sources of Dreams

Dreams can originate from three sources.

1. God — the Spirit of Man

   God communicates destiny, warning, and instruction through dreams. These are prophetic and spiritually sourced.

2. Man — the Soul of Man

   These are soul-generated dreams, not spiritual. They arise from busyness, stress, and emotional overload — what can be called vain imaginations. Jeremiah 23:25 warns of prophets who dream dreams of their own hearts, prophesying lies and causing people to forget God's name. These are soul-manufactured pictures.

3. Satan

   Deuteronomy 13:1–3 — A dream from the devil is not identified merely by terror or bad imagery. It can be something desirable that comes to pass, but leads away from God. The purpose of such a dream is to test whether one loves God with all heart, soul, and mind.

   • The end does not justify the means. Something can be benevolent in outcome yet still be a satanic projection.
   • Acts 16:16 — The slave girl with the spirit of divination made true statements about Paul and his companions, yet the spirit was not from God. The discernment came from context: she appeared when they went to pray, not through prayer herself. Her access point was not prayer.
   • Do not trust your dreams if you have no prayer life. If you are not praying, do not take decisions based on dreams.
   • There is a life that powers a healthy dream life.

Dreams as Night Visions

The Bible refers to dreams as night visions across both Testaments:

• Genesis 46:2 — God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night
• Job 4:13 — Thoughts from visions of the night
• Job 33:15 — In a dream, in a vision of the night
• Isaiah 29:7 — A dream of a night vision
• Daniel 2:19 — The secret revealed to Daniel in a night vision
• Daniel 7:2, 7:7, 7:13 — Visions seen by night
• Acts 16:9 — A vision appeared to Paul in the night
• Acts 18:9 — The Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision

Those who received these visions were people of prayer. Prayer is not to instruct God to give a dream — that is not the posture. God determines the channel of communication. One cannot dictate the method of revelation.

Dreams Reveal Destiny and Future Events

Genesis 37:5–11 — Joseph received dreams that revealed his God-given destiny. The dreams were prophetic, not psychological. Significantly, Joseph himself did not have the correct interpretation of his own dreams. He assumed the stars bowing meant his brothers would serve him. The true meaning unfolded as he journeyed — through servitude, imprisonment, and eventually rulership. The interpretation of that dream was that the greatest is the servant. He served his way to the fulfillment of what he saw.

There is no place in Scripture where Joseph's dream was formally interpreted for him. Even his brothers, who were also interpreters of dreams, misread it. The understanding came through the journey itself.

• If a vision appears twice, God is often confirming it has been established — see the principle in Joseph's case and in Pharaoh's double dream.
• Recurring dreams of old places, old houses, or old seasons are not trivial — they require prayer and discernment.
• Forgetting a dream does not exempt its contents from coming to pass. Nebuchadnezzar's response in Daniel 2 illustrates the gravity with which dreams must be treated.

Dreams Warn and Protect

Matthew 2:12 — Joseph was told in a night vision to carry the child to Egypt. This was divine protection, not theological positioning. Interpreting Egypt as "bondage" based on Old Testament symbolism would have been a fatal misapplication of scripture. The revelation came to preserve a life, not to satisfy theological categories.

When a warning appears in a dream:

• Do not merely confess scripture over it and move on.
• Stand on God's word and ask Him what to avoid.
• If peace is absent about a course of action after a warning dream, do not proceed.
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Pastor Dolapo Lawal
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Dreams Give Instructions and Assignments

Matthew 1:20 — Joseph received instruction to take Mary as his wife, and the explanation of the child's origin. God used the dream to give a specific directive that altered the course of action.

Unbelievers Can Receive Dreams from God

God is the God of all flesh. He uses dreams to turn unbelievers into instruments of His plan.

• Genesis 20:3 — The first mention of a dream in Scripture was given to Abimelech, an unbeliever.
• Numbers 22:20 — God spoke to Balaam.
• Daniel 2 — Nebuchadnezzar received the dream because he was president. Daniel was not given the dream — God gives dreams according to position and capacity.
• Matthew 27:19 — Pilate's wife received a dream concerning Jesus. Dreams can influence even those outside the covenant for the sake of God's purpose.

God does not waste pictures. If something looks bigger than you, it does not mean it is not for you — it means your estimation of yourself is wrong.

God said to Jesus: "I have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now." God only reveals what can be borne and acted upon. If a vision has been given, there is a corresponding call to do something about what was seen.

Dreams Are Part of the Promise of the Spirit

Joel 2:28 — The outpouring of the Spirit includes sons and daughters prophesying, old men dreaming dreams, and young men seeing visions. Peter quoted this text in Acts 2 to explain the events of Pentecost. Dreams are therefore part of the New Testament promise of the Spirit — not an Old Testament phenomenon.

Not All Leadings Come Through Dreams

Numbers 12:6 — God can speak through visions, dreams, or directly. The medium is God's choice, not a human's request. Scripture does not record anyone asking for a dream as a specific method of guidance.

• Gideon asked for a sign — Judges 6:36–40 — not a dream.
• Daniel asked for understanding of a dream — Daniel 2:17–19 — not for a dream itself.
• Joseph, Mary's husband, and others received dreams without requesting them.

People position themselves by seeking God, praying, and being obedient. God then chooses the outlet — dream, vision, audible voice, angelic visit. The request is for guidance, not for a specific vehicle of revelation.

Hearing God's Voice — the Context of John 10

John 10:1–10 — In this passage, Jesus speaks as a shepherd, not as a prophet or apostle. The promise here is not audible voice — it is teaching and leading. The sheep hear the shepherd's voice through the context of his teaching.

• A thief does not enter through the door — through the word. He gains access by another way.
• Strange teaching and strange leading are the identifiers of a stranger's voice.
• Hearing from God is not as important as correct interpretation. One can hear and still be in serious trouble.

Interpretation Is Superior to Vision

A vision received and misinterpreted can be more dangerous than no vision at all. Consider: a dream where someone walks on water after jumping from a bridge. The dream involves a real place, a real scenario, and an experience that came to pass in the dream. If the person encounters the exact same setting in waking life and jumps — they die. The vision was real. The interpretation was wrong.

• If the correct interpretation is right, that is where God is. If the interpretation is carried to the left or right, that is where the enemy operates.
• If a vision was meant to purify like fire and is misapplied, it burns instead of refines. The fire is not the problem — the problem is who is regulating the intensity.

Genesis 40:8 — "Do not interpretations belong to God?" Joseph's statement to Pharaoh's servants establishes that interpretation is not a human skill — it is a divine endowment.

How to Interpret Dreams

1. Find a Teaching Priest

   A teaching priest is not defined by oratory skill or auditory gifts. The marker is endurance with scripture — a two-hour message that opens sixty passages and the congregation is not restless because the word is alive. The word level in the body of Christ is critically low. That shallowness is why so many Christians cannot discern what they are hearing.

   • Find a pastoral voice that sharpens discernment through scripture.
   • The power of a healthy dream life is directly tied to being under sound teaching.
   • Personal testimony: recurring dreams of not making heaven ceased after sitting with the book of Ephesians until the revelation of being already seated in Christ became settled. Ignorance is not just an absence of knowledge — it is an infirmity. Correct revelation is the treatment.

2. Prayer and Fasting

   Do not go to search engines or AI tools with dream symbols. The interpretation of the baker's dream in Genesis 40:16–18 — three baskets equaling three days — has no natural correspondence. Baskets do not symbolize days in any human framework. Only God in heaven can give that kind of interpretation.

   Tongues edify the self. Prophecy edifies the church. What translates personal edification (tongues) into communal edification is interpretation. Interpretation of tongues is prophetic in nature. Similarly, the meaning of a dream is a prophetic word — an explanation from God. It is not a formula.

3. All Interpretation Must Come from God Through the Understanding of Scripture

   This means God's word and God's character form the framework for interpreting what is seen. An interpretation that contradicts God's character, isolates from family, or requires actions outside of biblical ethics is false.

   • Do not employ numerology detached from Christology. Numbers like 7 (perfection), 8, 10 (completeness) used as interpretive keys outside of their scriptural context will lead into error. Nowhere in the Epistles is this system taught. Colossians 2:16 — these were shadows; the substance is Christ.
   • There is no generic dream dictionary. Fat cows and thin cows carry meaning in Pharaoh's dream from Genesis 41 — but that does not make cows a universal symbol. God gives interpretation, not systems.
   • Fishes die when they leave water to eat what is thrown from outside. The resources that sustain life in God are inside that life. Once one reaches outside the boundary of scripture to interpret, the hook is set.

Prophetic Anointing and the Word

There is a rise in prophetic voices in this season. But God will not amplify a prophetic voice that cannot teach. A prophet is one who carries the revelations of God and uses the teaching anointing to establish those revelations. False ministry patterns tend to teach more experience than scripture — visions, angelic encounters, and mystical claims take the place of biblical grounding.

• Prophetic gifting does not disqualify specific knowledge — phone numbers, addresses, private details. God can grace someone with that. The test is not the detail; it is whether the ministry is rooted in sound teaching.
• Some people have not stepped into the fullness of their prophetic anointing because God, in His mercy, is restraining it. Their word level is too low. The weight of that anointing, released prematurely, would cause self-destruction and doctrinal error.
• A prophetic identity should emerge from depth in the word — when someone teaches and others recognize something prophetic in how they handle scripture. It is identified, not self-declared.

One of the signs of a healthy Christian is delight in God's word. Grow to the point where content without scripture cannot settle in the heart — not from pride, but because the spirit recognizes the absence of God in it.