“Likewise, also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries” (Jude 8).
Dreams were one of God’s diverse manners of communicating His authoritative word to humanity during the 1,600 years He used to complete the revelation of the Scriptures. Abimelech the king of Gerar, Jacob, Joseph, Pharoah, Solomon, Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel, and Joseph of Nazareth all received a divine message in a dream.
However, not everyone who claims to have received a revelation from God via a dream is telling the truth.
In the 23rd chapter of Jeremiah, there is an extended denunciation of the then-current batch of false prophets and false teachers. “I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in My name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies? Indeed they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart… Behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,” says the Lord, “and tell them, and cause My people to err by their lies and by their recklessness. Yet I did not send them or command them; therefore, they shall not profit this people at all,” says the Lord (vv. 25-26, 32).
In Zechariah’s day, those who envisioned lies and told false dreams—thus giving false comfort—were stoutly condemned and warned of God’s impending punishment upon them (10:2-3).
There is one telltale characteristic of every fraudulent spiritual dreamer: He is never content with simply obeying God’s written will (Deuteronomy 13:1-5).
The teaching of a phony spiritual dreamer permits the defilement of the temple of God (i.e. your body—1 Corinthians 6:19), rejects the authoritative written word of God, and is irreverent toward holy things.
His “dreams” are spiritual nightmares.
