How To Interpret Dreams by Pastor Dolapo Lawal: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Principles for Interpreting Dreams — Recap

This teaching continues a series on dreams. Earlier sessions established the first three principles:

1. Have a pastor, teacher, or consistent voice of biblical instruction over your life — Zechariah 10:2
2. Pray and fast; do not use Google or AI to interpret dreams — Genesis 40:8, Genesis 40:16–17
3. All interpretation must come from God through the understanding of scripture — meaning God's word and God's character are the lens

On that third point: the character of God is defined in Galatians 5:22–23 — love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. John 4:24 — God is spirit. The fruit of the spirit is not just a list of virtues; it is a portrait of who God is. Fear is not among them.

There is a difference between the fear of God and fear from God.

The fear of God is a gift — it is reverence that God himself imparts through his word. Wisdom is the ability to discern value, to identify foolishness and abstain from it. The fear of God means to see God's word as value, and anything outside it as foolishness.

A dream can instill the fear of God as a warning. But a dream from God should not produce fear in your heart — it should edify. 1 Corinthians 14 establishes that prophecy edifies the church. A dream shown to you to avert a disaster is not meant to frighten you into its fulfillment.

When you receive a warning dream and respond with fear, you put faith in the possibility of the very thing you were shown to avoid. Fear is a dimension of faith — operating in the wrong direction.

Faith is the substance of what you can see internally; fear creates what you dread seeing externally. Faith draws the hand of God; fear opens the door to what the enemy wants to do. In every situation, you get to choose which one you operate in.

The way to break the yoke of fear is to reckon yourself as dead. Colossians 3:2–3 — "Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." A dead person cannot die again. Once that reality is reckoned, there is no sin that can hold you by force, no threat that can paralyze you. When Jesus saved you, he collected your life. The life that the enemy was using against you was handed over. The enemy becomes powerless when members are not submitted to him.

Principle Four — Forgetting a Dream

Forgetting a dream does not erase its message, its purpose, or its consequence.

Daniel 2:3–5 — Nebuchadnezzar had a dream and his spirit was anxious. When the astrologers asked him to tell them the dream so they could interpret it, he refused. He said: if you cannot tell me both the dream and its interpretation, you will be cut in pieces. This king understood the weight of what he had received. He was not willing to receive a fabricated interpretation for something real.

That same seriousness is required. If a dream carries a strong sense of importance — even if the details fade — do not dismiss it. Go after the interpretation. God can give it back.

This especially applies to those who carry responsibility for others. When Joseph received the dream about carrying the child to Egypt, casualizing it would have cost the life of the Messiah. A father who stops dreaming — or stops paying attention to what he dreams — is abdicating priestly leadership in his home. God gave Nebuchadnezzar the dream because he was the king. God went to Joseph for direction about Mary's child because Joseph was the head of that household.

Principle Five — When You Dream Something Twice

Genesis 41:32 — "And the dream was repeated to Pharaoh twice because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass."

When a dream recurs, it has been established. Take it with full seriousness and act.

The appropriate response is to tarry — the same principle Jesus gave in Acts 1:4 when he told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem. They did not wait by speaking in tongues (that came in Acts 2). They waited by praying and studying scripture. In Acts 4:25–28 you see the nature of their prayer — they prayed with scripture, quoting Psalm 2 and aligning it with their situation.

When a recurring dream carries a threat, find the appropriate scriptures and begin to confess them. This is appropriation — not just loud prayer, but targeted agreement with what God has already said.

A practical example: someone who repeatedly dreamed of dying came for counsel. The scripture that was quickened was Exodus 20:12 — "Honor your father and mother, that your days may be long." The instruction given was to go and buy a gift for his parents and let them bless him. When he did, they blessed him with tears, speaking long life over him. The scripture was operated, not just quoted. That man is still alive years later.

Appropriating scripture means you go and find the weapons that directly address what you have seen, then confess them, act on them, and stand on them.

Principle Six — Dreams Are Prophetic, Not Terrifying

Dreams from God should edify, not terrify. The response of fear to any dream is already a misalignment — and as shown above, fear active in the spirit is not neutral.

Principle Seven — We Are Led by the Word, Not by Dreams

We are not led by dreams. We are led with dreams. The word of God is the primary means of leading. A dream must corroborate the word to constitute a leading.

If a dream presents a married person as your spouse, no matter how many times it recurs, it cannot override what scripture says. Matthew 19 — what God has joined together, let no man separate. Once a marriage exists, it is the will of God. God did not tell Abraham to marry Sarah — God simply walked with the two of them together.

On the matter of divorce: the only grounds scripture provides are abuse (requiring one to flee for their life) and sexual immorality (Matthew 19). Even then, treatment must precede amputation — the marriage is worth fighting for before severing.

Situational Examples

Eating in a Dream

The question of eating in a dream is common, and the biblical data is more nuanced than it is often taught.

In the Old Testament, the recorded instances of someone being served food are both angelic:

• 1 Kings 17:4–6 — ravens brought Elijah bread and meat. Ravens are an unclean animal by Leviticus 11. God used them anyway.
• 1 Kings 19:5–8 — an angel woke Elijah and told him to eat, cooking food for him on a journey.

In the New Testament, the most relevant instance is Peter's trance in Acts 10. God told him to kill and eat. Peter refused on grounds of ceremonial law. God responded: "Do not call what I have called clean, unclean." The interpretation is given in verse 28 — it had nothing to do with food. It was about the inclusion of the Gentiles. Peter experienced the interpretation as events unfolded.

You can be eating in a dream and it may not be about eating at all. It could be typifying something else entirely. That is why God must be the one to interpret it.

Scripture does not support the conclusion that eating in a dream is automatically demonic. It is also possible to simply be hungry. Do not allow programmed fear from prior teaching to create anxiety where God placed none. Unnecessary fear is what Paul called bewitching — people being programmed through preaching into bondage that the word did not put on them (Galatians 3:1).

Sexual Dreams

This subject is often taught in a way that produces guilt in people who have no cause for guilt.

Several clarifications from scripture:

• It is not always demonic, not always spiritual, and not always a matter of personal fault.
• Dreams can arise from the soul — from thoughts, memories, desires, and unresolved impressions — as Ecclesiastes 5:3 indicates.
• There is no place in scripture where sexual dreams are described, where a spirit husband or spirit wife is named as a demonic entity, or where such dreams are labeled as covenant-breaking. Matthew 22:30 — Jesus said angels neither marry nor are given in marriage in heaven. If angels do not marry, demons do not either. Marriage is for the earth. The only marriage in heaven is the marriage of Christ and his church.
• Temptation is not sin until consent is given. A dream is not always an act of the will. Guilt placed on someone for a dream they did not choose is misplaced.

If such dreams are unwanted and frequent, the response is not to carry guilt but to:

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Did The Old Testament Authors Know Jesus? (100 Days Of Discipleship — Day 58)

by Apostle Emmanuel Iren

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• Resist the devil and insist that those images stop — James 4:7
• Confess appropriate scriptures: 1 Corinthians 3:16 — your body is the temple of God; 1 Corinthians 6:17 — whoever is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him
• Examine inputs — thought life, stress levels, spiritual disciplines
• Meditate on what is true, noble, just, pure, and lovely — Philippians 4:8

Christian meditation is not emptying the mind. Joshua 1:8 — "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth; you shall meditate in it day and night." Meditation is speaking — keeping the word in the mouth. Psalm 119:37 — "Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, and revive me in your way" — this is a prayer that directly addresses the problem.

Seeing Yourself in the Past — Old Houses, School Uniforms, Former Seasons

Many people dream repeatedly of being in their childhood home, their secondary school, or a season long behind them. Sometimes in the dream they are failing an exam or reliving a painful memory.

Scripture provides a framework for evaluating this:

1. Biblical dreams are forward-looking. Every recorded dream in the Bible that carries divine meaning points to what will happen — Genesis 37, Genesis 40–41, Daniel 2, Matthew 1–2. They are prophetic, not retrospective.
2. When the past is addressed in scripture, it is through waking memory or repentance — not dreams. Recollection happens while awake. See Deuteronomy 5:15, Psalm 77:11.
3. Biblical dream symbolism uses external imagery — beasts, trees, statues, celestial bodies — not personal flashbacks or self-reliving experiences. Genesis 41, Daniel 7.
4. Dreams and visions point to God's purpose, not self-reflection. They are directional, not introspective.

If all dreams from God are futuristic and directional, then whatever imagery is pulling you into your past is not from God. It must be resisted.

Find scriptures that speak about progress, advancement, and forward motion. Declare in prayer that every garment of backwardness is torn off. If a dream is defining your economy, your capacity, and your identity as that of a 16-year-old in a school uniform — that is not a small thing. The imagery must go.

Sleep Paralysis — The Terror by Night

Job 7:13–14 — "When I say, 'My bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaints,' then you scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions." In context, the affliction in Job is from Satan — God's role is permissive, not causative. Job 2 makes this explicit. The one scaring him with dreams and terrifying him with visions is the devil.

Psalm 91:5 — "You shall not be afraid of the terror by night." The existence of that verse confirms the existence of terror by night. There is a real spiritual threat that can operate during sleep. The solution the psalm provides is the covering of the Most High and the shadow of the Almighty.

God gives his beloved sleep as a gift. When inside that gift, something is pressing or tormenting — that is an intrusion that must be resisted.

If someone is afflicted by sleep paralysis or nighttime terror repeatedly, one question worth examining is what the enemy finds to work with. Jesus said, "The prince of this world came to me and found nothing in me." Whatever makes the enemy comfortable in your life gives him ground.

• Unforgiveness
• Bitterness
• Unjust sustained anger — "Be angry, but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your wrath" (Ephesians 4:26)
• Envy — being pained by the joy and promotion of others

James 3:14–15 — "But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic." Bitterness and envy are not minor attitudes — they place you in proximity to demonic operation.

James 5:14–16 — "Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him… and the prayer of faith will save the sick… Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed."

Holding unforgiveness blocks healing. A woman who came forward at a meeting for healing received nothing until she disclosed that years earlier her father had thrown her out into the rain, and she had vowed to buy the house and drive him out of it. When asked if she forgave him she said she could not. When told she could not be healed without it, she wept, released it — and the miracle happened in that moment.

The authority given by the blood of Jesus operates in the same realm as the forgiveness of sins. Trying to invoke that authority while refusing to forgive creates a contradiction that stops the operation.

The Preventive Nature of Prayer

Prayer is preventive, not primarily curative. Matthew 26:41 — "Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation." Jesus did not say pray after you have fallen. He said pray so that you do not fall.

The devil does not take once and leave. When a lion or bear came and took a sheep from David's flock, it was not done — it had marked the flock and would return. That is the pattern: steal, then kill, then destroy (John 10:10). A praying house makes the house inhospitable to that pattern. Jesus called his house a house of prayer for a reason — not a den of thieves. Where there is no prayer, the enemy enters and exits at will.

Do not wait until affliction has compounded into a nine-month problem before addressing it. Build the house of prayer consistently, so that there is nothing to avert.

Father, in the name of Jesus — let the entrance of your word give light. Restore what has been forgotten. Give clarity to what has been seen in part. For every dream that has been carrying backward imagery — let it be broken. Let every garment of backwardness be torn off. Let every terror by night be silenced by the shadow of the Almighty.

For those carrying guilt over dreams they did not choose — let that guilt be lifted. Let them walk in the freedom of what the blood already secured.

And Lord, release the spirit of prayer as a preventive covering over every home, every life, every family reading this. Make us houses of prayer. In Jesus' name. Amen.