!
The vote is in and I have the results of the poll about whether God speaks through dream today.
You are getting this email because you filled out the survey (and I promised to send you the results for doing so).
The original email went out to over 1,200 people. Of that I got 23 surveys completed. Not the most overwhelming response… but you’re part of the “cool crowd”!
In terms of the question “Does God speak to His people through dreams today?” I had the following distribution:
- 35% (8 votes) said “Definitely yes”
- 56% (13 votes) said “I don’t think so”
- 1 person said “Definitely not”
- 1 person said “I just want to see the results”
I don’t really have a reaction or opinion to this distribution, it is what its is. I’m not really surprised that every major option got votes. I think across the Christian community there are groups that hold all those specific views, so I think it just means I have a healthy cross section.
For the question “Do you know someone who claims to have heard from God in a dream?” the responses were pretty evenly split:
- 11 Votes said yes
- 12 Votes said no
I think the most likely thing here is that some people who “I don’t think so” or definitely not” to the first question ended up saying “yes” here. The no vote was only 52% – which is less than the 60% in the negative category on Question 1.
My only observation here is that it having an acquaintance who claims to have had dreams from God doesn’t really follow what the person believes themselves.
For the question “Have you ever heard from God in a dream?” the response was a little lopsided.
- 5 people answered Yes
- 18 people answered No
In sort of an inverse pattern to the previous question, it would seem that some of the people who believe that God speaks through dreams today have not themselves had a dream like that. 22% of the respondents said they had experienced such a dream. But 35% believed this was a possible thing.
No judgment here. Just the math.
Six people offered stories about dreams they’d had. Yes that’s one more than the number of people who claimed to have had divine dreams. One person described a situation but said they didn’t think it was from God.
Here are some excerpts for your reading pleasure…
- I was exercised to give a significant much needed donation to a Christian organisation.
- Pray over a certain situation. Change a decision for our family.
- One night, I had a dream-like experience where I was walking in the Garden of Gethsemane with Jesus begging him not to go to the cross. He explained that He had to go to the cross to save me because He loved me so much.. This was a very unusual experience in that I hadn’t attended church in 40 years or so, and only prayed when I was in dire straits. That “dream” experience was the beginning of my being born again and acknowledging the power of the Holy Spirit within me. Since then, I have had one other dream experience but it was rather dark and I think was the work of Satan trying to pull me in. I very rarely remember my dreams, but these two seem to have been supernatural in nature and not “dreams” as we typically think of them…. certainly not giving me a message or telling me what to do. These were more like experiences instead of dreams
- it is not so much at times what he says it is what you observe. when i first became a Christian i felt i could have a relationship with Jesus and the holy spirit but not with GOD. In this dream someone was walking beside me who i presume was Jesus i was comfortable and off we went. As we carried on we where in a building and we moved into each room until we came to the final room , as we went into this room there was only me but i felt very calm and relaxed and i cold hear a voice saying to me over and over my son and i then replied father and this went on for a few minutes and then i began to cry as i felt his arms around me.
- I did have a dream, but I don’t believe it was from God. When I was in Tanzania in my college days, I wanted to be an English teacher at a Maasai school for girls, that is, unless E proposed to me when I got back to the U.S. One of my last nights in Arusha, I had a dream that I was walking in the city, when suddenly this “breath of air” passed through me and said, “Grow in faith together.” I don’t believe that was God telling me to go home and marry E, I believe it was a “manifestation” of my true desire. I had been thinking about it a lot since visiting the Maasai school. My time in Tanzania had ended, I went back to the States, E proposed and we were married a year later. And we have been growing in our faith together for almost 27 years!
- I journal all my dreams and visions, He has told many many many, things. I have been journaling dreams and visions since 1975, that’s when I was saved. It would take a long time to tell you all the things He has told me. I would love to share them with you, but not sure how that would work. He has shown me sometimes things of the future, spiritual conditions of people, how to pray for them, He has shown me what remedies to use for animals and people, told me who would die (family members) and how long it would be until their death, He has shown me my sin, who would win elections, and much more.
Thank you for your participation in this little survey. I quite enjoyed getting all the feedback.
I look forward to the next email with you. Until then, God Bless!
Dennis
