Rabbi Schneider - The Importance of Dreams
Baruch Hashem beloved ones. Baruch Hashem is Hebrew for blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. You've probably heard me share it on some of our episodes together. Maybe you've never said it. Why don't you try saying it with me. Let's say it together. Baruch, I'm giving you an opportunity to say it out loud. Baruch, that means bless, Hashem. Ha means the and shem means the name. So Baruch Hashem is bless the name, bless the name of the Lord. It's just a common way to give praise unto the Lord.
We are in a series, beloved ones, that I'm calling "Prophesy, Dreams, and Visions". If you've not been able to tune in to the earlier broadcast in the series, I really want to encourage you, go back and watch it. It's on Youtube and other outlets as well. Listen to the simple, but profound statement. To disregard your dreams is to disregard God. And the reason that I'm making such a strong statement is, it is a proven scriptural fact that God speaks to His people through their dreams at night. In fact when the Holy Spirit came, as I've been proclaiming, in Acts chapter 2; Peter stood up and he said, "What you're seeing is the fulfillment of what Joel prophesied when Joel said in the last days, 'The Lord will pour forth His Spirit on all flesh and the sons and daughters will prophesy, the old men will dream dreams and the young men will see visions'".
And so when God's Spirit is poured out upon us, one of the things that automatically happens as a result of having His Spirit, is that God speaks to us by His Spirit whom He's poured out upon us and now lives in us, through our dreams at night. Dreams are very important and to disregard them, once again, is to disregard the voice of God speaking into your life; because you see there's elements in your life and in my life, there's areas in our life, details about our life, that the Bible doesn't give us specific information on. And I know if you've been tuning in with me on the earlier broadcast, you've been hearing me say this. But for the benefit of those that are tuning in to this series for the first time, you see the Bible doesn't tell you whether you should move to a certain city or not.
The Bible doesn't tell you whether you should make a particular investment or not. The Bible doesn't tell you who to marry. There's so many particular decisions that we need to make in life that are detailed oriented. We want the mind of God about these decisions, but the Holy Spirit hasn't communicated the details in the scripture. If you're a young person, the Bible didn't tell you which college to go to, but yet you wanted the mind of God to determine, to make the right decision as to which college to go to. God wants to speak to us about the details of our life and sometimes, beloved one, He'll do that through a dream at night.
Now during the course of this series I've laid a major foundation. I've talked about the different types of ways that God speaks to us in our dreams and the different reasons He speaks to us in our dreams. And I left off last time saying that often times the Lord will speak to us in our dreams to give us direction and strategy. Now let me make the comment, so no one misunderstood, misunderstands. I've made it before. I'm not saying that every dream you have is from God. In fact my experience has been a small number of them are. Let me give you a personal example. And the reason that I'm sharing these personal examples with you isn't to lift up my own experience, but to help you to understand this is for now. It's for today and it's for you. I had a dream that really communicated a deep spiritual truth to me.
In this dream, I was once again, I was in a small room. It was like a one room cabin I was in. It was like in the middle of the woods somewhere. And in the cabin there was a simple little picnic table and there was a man sitting across the picnic table from me. And I was the only other one in the cabin. This one room little cabin. Man over here, picnic table, me on the other side of the picnic table. And there was one window where I could see outside. And I knew as I was observing and taking part in the dream, that I had been sitting in this room with this man for a very long time. And I also perceived in the dream, that the man that I was sitting across from was a familiar friend. It wasn't like I saw his face. I just saw the man, but it wasn't like his face or anything stood out. All I perceived was, I was sitting across from this man. He was a familiar friend and I had been sitting across from him in this room for a very long time. Suddenly I began to get really antsy. I wanted to get out of the room. It's like I had been sitting there long enough and I just wanted to get out and do something. Then when I looked out the window and I saw the outside beauty, I wanted to get out of that room and get outside.
As I began to get up from the picnic table to escape the room, because I had been sitting there for so long, the Ruach Hakodesh, the Holy Spirit spoke to me. And here's what He said, He said, "That man that you're sitting across from, that familiar friend, that's Jesus. And if you'll just keep sitting across from Him, He is gonna make you completely whole". And what the Lord was showing me there, beloved ones, is to spend time continuing to do what I had been doing already, just sitting before the Lord. It's a discipline. It's agonizing sometimes to do nothing but be still when we're so used to being active. But the Lord was instructing me through that dream to be still, to sit with Jesus, to just spend time alone with Him, not run from the experience. Don't run, because you want to go do something that you think is gonna be more exciting or more stimulating. The Lord was saying to me, "Just keep spending time alone with Me. Just keep sitting before Me. And as you do," the Lord was saying to me, "I am going to continue to make you whole".
The importance of spending time alone with God every day. You see the Lord will give us specific strategy and direction for our lives through, beloved ones, our dreams. I want to make it clear, as I've stated before, not every dream that we have is from the Lord. The dreams that I'm sharing with you, these aren't like I have these types of dreams every single night. But I have them often enough, that they have dramatically impacted and shaped my journey. You see, I've even been warned in dreams at night, of things that could happen if I didn't heed the counsel. There's a lot of scriptural examples of this. For example, when we go to the book of Matthew chapter 2 verse 12 and 13, listen what the scripture says here concerning Joseph.
"And having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, the magi left for their own country by another way. Now when they had gone, behold an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, 'Get up. Take the child and His mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you. For Herod is going to search for the child to destroy Him'". In other words, we find ourselves in the midst of the story. Mary had given birth. Miriam we call her in Hebrew, had given birth to Yeshua. Joseph obviously being not the biological father, but Jesus' father that was raising Him on earth. And Herod was gonna kill the male children during this time, because he had heard that a Messiah had been born.
And so the angel came to Joseph and said, "Get out of Israel, because Herod's gonna kill the newborns here, and go to Egypt". How did Joseph gain his direction and this strategy? Through, beloved, a dream. He was warned in a dream. God can warn you from making wrong purchases, making wrong decisions in relationships. He can help you to stay on track if you'll pay attention and particularly to the warnings God gives you at night. And this is what Elihu wrote about in the book of Job. Elihu was the one counselor that wasn't rebuked. And what Elihu said was, "The Lord can save your soul from the pit if you'll listen to God's warnings to you, through your dreams at night".
I remember years ago I had intended on moving to Toledo, Ohio, when my youngest daughter had graduated high school; because I was shepherding a congregation there. And so I said, "It doesn't make sense for me to be living so far away, but I don't want to pull my daughter out of high school, in the middle of her high school years. But when she graduates high school, I'm gonna then move to Toledo," which was closer to the congregation I was shepherding. So my youngest daughter had graduated high school. Immediately I contacted a realtor. Cynthia and I began to look around at houses in the Toledo area and we found a house and we really liked the house. We liked it so much we wrote a contract on the house. It was Friday afternoon. That Friday evening I went to minister at the congregation I was shepherding and then late into the evening after the ministry time was over, I drove my car back over to the house that I had written a contract on. There was like a, kind of a chair, it was more like a stool in the back yard.
So it's the middle of the night now. You know I don't remember, 12 o'clock in the morning, even later. I sit on the bench. I'm literally now in that physical premise. I'm at the property. I'm sitting on the bench and I'm praying. I said, "Lord, is this the right house? It seems right. It feels right". I mean I still had some outs in the contract. You know if it was inspected and the inspector saw things that I didn't like, etc. But I had signed the contract. I'm sitting on the bench in the back yard, middle of the night. I hear the crickets chirping. I say, "Lord is this the right house? Lord this is a big decision". I just opened my heart up, beloved, and prayed. Then after praying I got back in my car and drove back to the rabbi's quarters where I was sleeping.
That night I had a dream. I saw myself in the dream in a stockade. Do you know what a stockade is? You know it's like two pieces of wood and there's a little hole in the bottom piece for you to put your neck in and your two wrists in and then a piece of wood comes on top, so that you're stuck there. I mean I never thought about a stockade in my life. I mean what does a Jewish boy like me know about a stockade? I'm not a, you know I'm not a military guy. I didn't study ancient military history. But it was so clear and the imagery was so strong. I mean you couldn't miss it. The Lord was saying to me, "If you buy that house, you're gonna be trapped. You're gonna be in a stockade". And it was so powerful. I woke up the next morning. I couldn't wait to pick up that phone and call the realtor and say, "Cancel that contract". God saved me from making a decision, beloved ones, that would have dramatically impacted my life and I would have suffered greatly for had I not been warned by the Lord and listened to His warning. God will warn you to keep you from making bad decisions through your dreams at night.
I remember going back almost twenty years ago and there was a particular Messianic congregation, I won't name where the city was, but huge Jewish population. And they invited me to come and minister to them. They were looking for a rabbi and they housed me in one of the elder's homes that night after I ministered. And as I slept in that elder's home that night the Lord showed me what would happen to me if I came and pastored that congregation. And because of the information that I received in the dream, I was able to have clear direction and say to the board of elders, "Listen, I don't think this is a good fit". And of course it dramatically helped me to fulfill the destiny that God had for me.
Are you seeing how important dreams are and how much you can be blessed by following God's leading to you through your dreams? This is why Joel and Peter in the book of Acts said to us, "That because you now have the Holy Spirit, God's gonna speak to you through your dreams at night". To disregard your dreams, beloved, is to disregard the counsel of God. This is very critical and very, very important. Do you know sometimes the Lord will even speak to us audibly in our dreams at night? I mean sometimes it's just an imagery. Most of my dreams, it's just imagery; simple pictures of scenes and people and so forth, that communicate a message. And I talked in some of the previous broadcasts, how the language of dreams is symbolic, just as the parables of Jesus were symbolic. We have to search the Lord and ask Him for understanding. The Lord will sometimes, however, speak to us audibly even in our sleep.
Listen for example what happened with Solomon. I'm reading in the book now of 1 Kings chapter number 3. Hear the Word of God. "In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream at night; and God said". Solomon literally heard the voice of God. And God said to Solomon, "Ask what you wish Me to give you". Sometimes God will literally speak to us in an audible voice. I've had this happen on several occasions. I remember one time in a spiritual encounter I had with the Lord at night, it was like there was a river of fire rolling into me, back to God, in to me, back to God. It was like a circling river of fire. And then the Holy Spirit spoke audibly to me. It was the voice of Father God. And here's what He said to me. I'll never forget it. He said to me, "Seize My Word and don't let anything else in".
That was close to fifteen years ago. He said to me, "Seize My Word and don't let anything else in". There's nothing in the world that could ever make me doubt that I heard the voice of the Lord that night, that I heard the voice of Father. I've grieved over it. I've prayed about it, even to this day. "Lord help me to seize Your Word and not let anything else in. Father help me to understand what Your Word is and how do I seize the whole Bible;" because we speak of the whole Bible as the Word. "How do I do that Lord"? And as I began to pray and seek the Lord, the Lord began to help me understand what He was saying to me, to seize the portion of His Word that He's highlighting to me at this particular season in my life and don't let anything else in. Whether it's the written Word of God or whether it's something that He's said to me through a dream, or prophetically; seize His Word and don't let anything else in.
The enemy is always out there trying to give us his own false perception of reality. God is saying, "Don't let the voice of darkness in. Don't let the enemy's perception of reality invade your consciousness, but seize My Word and don't let anything else in". God can speak to us audibly, beloved ones, in our sleep. Sometimes He'll do it with music. Maybe some of you, in fact I'm confident that some of you and don't feel bad if you've not had this experience, but I know that several of you at least have had the experience a few times, where you heard heavenly music in your sleep. I've probably had that happen to me about half dozen times over forty years, where I literally in my sleep heard heavenly music. How do I know it was heavenly music? Because it was so beautiful, so utterly beautiful and moving, something that I've never heard before. I knew it was coming from heaven itself.
And one time the music was mixed with the actual voice of God, where there were literal words. On most occasions I just heard the music, was moved by the heavenly music with no words. But one time I heard the music with words and here's what the Lord said to me the one time I heard His voice with the music. He said to me, "Take the details out of the detail and leave out the decimal point". I mean think about it. I've really had a lot of prayer about that, because it's something that again, it's kind of a riddle language. He said, "Take the details out of the detail and take out the decimal point, or remove the decimal point". There were two different elements He was saying. The first thing He was saying is, "Don't get bogged down in the details. Give enough detail to make My voice clear, but don't become so detailed that people get lost in the details and they're unable to be moved in the same way by the message".
Take the details out of the detail. Not that details aren't important, but for my purpose the Lord doesn't want me to get so detail orientated with you, that the message isn't coming through. And then He said this to me. He said to me, "Remove the decimal point". What did He mean by that? He spoke about giving and loving. Give big, take out the decimal point. Love big. Live big. Remove the decimal point. Live life big. Give big. Love big. Dream big. Beloved, God speaks to us. I'm speaking about all of us. I'm speaking about you and me in our dreams. As we close out this series now, I want to begin to prepare you for what we're gonna do next week. On next week's broadcast, I'm gonna pray for you and I'm gonna give you very specific strategies for how you can begin to recall your dreams better and get more out of them. Beloved, I love you. I can't stress how important this series is. Dreams are for everybody and to disregard your dreams, beloved ones, is to disregard God. Baruch Hashem.