What Does the Bible Say About Dreams?

1/16/2021 Christianity 21 Comments

Regardless of age, gender, and social standing, all people experience dreams when they sleep.

The dreams that come to a person may vary. They can be humorous, sad, bizarre, horrifying, or mystical; or they can even be about someone else or perhaps about something incredible.

Inevitably, there are times when a dreamer gets affected, or is bewildered, by the dream that he had. Thus, it is important to find out if the dreams that a person experiences bear any meaning and significance, or not.

Ecclesiastes 5:3,7 (KJV) says,


Apparently, not all dreams have significance. Sometimes, a dream comes to a person because his mind has been busy thinking about so many problems and worries — not to mention, his aspirations, desires, and other concerns in life — to the point that even until the time he goes to sleep, his mind is still preoccupied with those things. The dreams that come to this person are usually without sense and relevance, and should, therefore, be readily dismissed from his thoughts.

Dreams may come to a sleeping individual very frequently. What science has discovered in relation to this conforms to what the Bible mentioned as “multitude of dreams”. They found out that a person in a deep sleep dreams every 30 minutes; unfortunately, not all of these dreams are remembered when he wakes up.


While it is true that many of the dreams that people experience are without significance, as they are mostly born out of stress and tension and other preoccupations in life, it is also a biblical truth that there are dreams which are significant and deserve to be paid attention to because they are sent by God.

God sends dreams to His people to give them prophetic declarations. Just like the dream that Jacob’s son, Joseph, had when he was younger. His dream meant that he would have dominion over his brothers someday, and that even his father and mother would also bow down themselves to him (Genesis 37:7-10, KJV).

Indeed, this came to pass because time really came when he reigned and had power over the members of his family.

Another is the dream that visited another Joseph, the husband of Mary, when his mind was troubled upon learning that Mary was already carrying a child in her womb despite the fact that he had not slept with her yet.

Matthew 1:18-20 (KJV) says,


Joseph thought that Mary became unfaithful to him, which was why he was contemplating on parting ways with her. And because he didn’t want to put her to public shame, he was planning to do it secretly.

However, that night, an angel of the Lord visited him in his dreams, and told him not to pursue what he was planning to do. He explained to him that Mary’s conception was of the Holy Spirit, and not by another man. Joseph’s dream served as guidance to him so that he wouldn’t misjudge Mary, and so that he wouldn’t make a wrong decision.

Based on the given situations taken from the Bible, it can be discerned that there are dreams sent by God to His people to warn them about the things that are going to happen in the future, to guide them in their course of action, and also to spare them from an impending tragedy.

We had a brother in the Church, Bro. Nazario S. Regalado, who during the Japanese occupation, was incarcerated in a garrison. But while inside the Japanese concentration camp, he lost his sanity.

And when he started doing crazy things in his prison cell, like writing on the wall using his feces as his writing tool, the Japanese soldiers decided to send him to a mental health institution in Mandaluyong.

Several days after he was brought to a mental health facility, the Americans made an air raid in the area where that particular Japanese garrison was situated. As a result, the whole camp was annihilated and no living creature was left alive.

Although it was a tragic incident for all of those who were there, yet, it meant salvation for our brother in faith.

But before Brother Ariong (his nickname) became a prisoner of war, his mother dreamt that he became a cow. Biblically speaking, a cow is symbolic of a preacher; therefore, her dream meant that her son would one day become a preacher. However, she couldn’t figure out how it would be made possible when her son had been detained in a Japanese garrison and had lost his sanity while in detention.

Eventually, they came to understand that everything that happened to Brother Ariong all led to the realization of the dream that his mother had about him. His temporary madness had to happen and he had to be sent to a mental institution for him not to be included among those who would die during the air raid. His life was spared and the mental health facility where he was brought served as his refuge.

After sometime, he got well and was able to go back to his normal life; in fact, he even became a faculty member in one of the universities in Bulacan. Most of all, he became a Church worker, or a preacher – a realization of the dream that his mother had. And not only that.

When I became the Overall Church Servant, Brother Nazario Regalado became the general secretary and treasurer. Undoubtedly, the dream that Brother Ariong’s mother had was sent to her by God.

Although there are dreams that are sent by God to His people, let me reiterate that not all dreams come from God. Some of them come from the enemy of God and some are but a result of man’s preoccupations and overthinking of problems and other cares of this world.

But to be spared from being visited by disturbing dreams, it is always best to say a short prayer to God before going to sleep.