Job 33:14-18

For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. ¹⁵ In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; ¹⁶ Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction, ¹⁷ That he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man. ¹⁸ He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword.

We have learned that even though God speaks through dreams, He is not the only source of dreams. Every Christian should seek to understand their dreams so as to know when God is giving them a revelation of things to come or when He is issuing a warning and calling you to pray against an impending danger. God is always willing and ready to give his children revelations through dreams. In Numbers 12:6, He said He will speak to his prophets in dreams. When God gives you a dream, it does not contradict his Word. Many Christians, when they dream go about even to unbelievers asking for the interpretation of their dreams. The Bible has no record of a Christian or someone who has a relationship with God going about asking people for the interpretation of their dreams. The only people I see in the Bible asking for dream interpretations are people going to those with higher spiritual authorities. For example, the heathen kings like Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar.

For every Christian, when God gives you a dream, He's not going to confuse you nor ask you to go about seeking for interpretation. If God gives you a dream, the interpretation is also with him. When Pharaoh's cupbearer and baker had dreams while in jail, they needed Joseph to interpret the dreams, even though Joseph did, but he made it clear that the interpretation is with God. In other words, even though he was interpreting it for them, it was God that was giving the interpretation through him.

Genesis 40:8

And they said unto him, we have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter of it. And Joseph said unto them, do not interpretations belong to God? tell me them, I pray you.

Every dream from God has its interpretation with him. If you are a child of God filled with the Holy Ghost, if you have a dream from God, the moment you wake up and reflect on the dream, the meaning will drop straight in your heart by the Spirit of God. This is because God is the one trying to send you a message through dream but remember, the message will never contradict what He has already said in his Word. However, if you don't get the meaning or you do not quite understand what the Lord is trying to communicate to you, go to God in prayers and ask him for explanations. You can also go to someone with a higher spiritual authority and understanding to help you interpret the dream.

Important things to know about dream interpretation

1. Dreams do not have literary interpretations.

In Daniel chapter 2, Nebuchadnezzar had a dream in which he saw a statue with the head made of pure gold, its chest and arms were made of silver, its belly and thighs made of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. If he was interpreting it literarily, he may say that God wanted to give him probably some treasures of gold, silver etc. But it took the understanding of God to bring the interpretation of that dream through His servant, Daniel. Don't try to interpret a dream literarily because dreams come in codes. For example, a woman may dream of being raped. This most often represents not a criminal act which is soon to occur, but rather an emotional or spiritual robbing of something near and dear to the person. It does not mean that God cannot be direct in His revelations to us through dreams, but we need to be careful. Dreams are very cryptic and symbolic in nature, and we must be careful to know when to take an element literally and when to see it as representative of something else.

2. Individuals or objects in a dream can sometimes represent types of people or objects rather than themselves.

In Genesis 41:1-3, Pharaoh dreamt and saw some cows.

And it came to pass at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed: and, behold, he stood by the river. ² And, behold, there came up out of the river seven well favoured kine and fatfleshed; and they fed in a meadow. ³ And, behold, seven other kine came up after them out of the river, ill favoured and leanfleshed; and stood by the other kine upon the brink of the river.

But in the interpretation given to him by Joseph those cows represented years of abundance and years of famine in Egypt.

Genesis 41:25-26

And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one: God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to do. ²⁶ The seven good kine are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years: the dream is one.

3. The interpretation of your dream must be within the overall context of the emotion you felt upon waking.

The feeling you get upon awaking from a dream is always a pointer to the significance of the dream. A dream with a negative meaning such as warning, or an impending danger is always followed with sadness upon awakening while a dream that portrays good news or oncoming blessing brings joy to the dreamer upon awakening. In Genesis 40:5-6, Pharoah's cupbearer and baker had dreams that brought them sadness upon awakening.

Genesis 40:5-6

⁵ And they dreamed a dream both of them, each man his dream in one night, each man according to the interpretation of his dream, the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, which were bound in the prison. ⁶ And Joseph came in unto them in the morning, and looked upon them, and, behold, they were sad.

4. There are no universal standard meanings for most of the symbols in dreams.

In as much as certain symbols mean the same thing even in dreams as they are explained in the Bible there is no universal standard meaning for most objects in dreams. Common objects, colors, animals, locations, or anything else can mean different things to people based on their associations and impressions of those things which are unique to each individual.

Some of the symbols that could be universal with their meanings include - seeing Snakes, serpents which represents the Enemy; demons; a bad omen; danger.

Be attentive, study the word of God, for God may be wanting to give you some dreams and you need to be able to interpret such.