Does The LORD Still Grant Visions And Dreams?

It has been a couple months since I posted anything to this blog. During that time my wife and I made a major move. We moved to a retirement village in south Texas. So now that we are settled in and comfortable I am able to move on with my next project.  I will now explore what the Bible has to say about visions and dreams. The question is whether the LORD still today speaks to His people through visions and dreams. Does He grant such visions only to a select few or can we anticipate that the LORD will and does speak to any one of us directly in our own visions and dreams?

In the past several months everything we studied in the book of the Revelation has been based upon John's vision. Listen again to what he says as his mysterious book begins:

I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, "Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea." Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, - Rev 1:10-12 ESV

Notice the phrase "in the Spirit" and that he is told by "a loud voice like a trumpet" to write "what you see." When he turns "to see the voice that was speaking" he "saw" seven golden lamp stands. . .

Let's start with "in the Spirit." Exactly what John means by that phrase is not immediately clear. He uses the phrase several times:

I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet - Rev 1:10 ESV
At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. - Rev 4:2 ESV
And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. - Rev 17:3 ESV
And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, - Rev 21:10 ESV

John is probably saying that he was meditating upon God's Word on the day the church remembers  and celebrates the resurrection of Jesus, the Lord's day, namely Sunday.  To speak of being "in" normally refers to a place with limits of space, such as being in Bethlehem (Matt. 2:1). It can also refer to the contents of a book or prophecy. So Paul writes about that portion of Scripture in  which Elijah is recorded as claiming that Israel has forsaken her God (Rom. 11:2). In turn, Paul writes about a believer being in the Spirit if in fact "the Spirit of God dwells in you" (Rom. 8:9). Consequently it is safe to say that the Spirit dwelling in John led him to hear and to see what the Spirit was uncovering about events that are to take place in the future.

This then is the primary meaning of the visions given to Bible prophets. Led by the Holy Spirit they proclaim and write about what they have seen and heard about the future. So Isaiah starts his prophecy with these words:

The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. - Isa 1:1 ESV

The word for vision in the Hebrew language is chazown.  The word occurs 35 times in 34 verses of the Hebrew Bible. So way back in the days before King David, we read about the boy Samuel hearing the LORD speak to him. The writer says that "the word of the LORD was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision. Samuel did not know what to make of the voice he heard until Eli the priest instructed him to listen and obey. When he did that the LORD spoke to Samuel and said,

"Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the ears of everyone who hears it will tingle." 1 Sam 3:11 ESV

(Formerly in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, he said, "Come, let us go to the seer," for today's "prophet" was formerly called a seer.) - 1Sa 9:9 ESV 

So Samuel is called a seer of visions. John's vision falls in line with the ancient prophets. He saw, he heard and then proclaimed in writing what the LORD had revealed.

In the next posts I want to explore with you what this means for the present and modern church. What does the New Testament say about prophets and prophesying and in what way does the office of the prophet continue?

What About Natural-born Intuitive Psychics?

This week we're taking a careful, but brief, look at psychics and mediums, especially those folks that claim to be able to communicate with the dead.

As always, its best to start with a couple definitions. In general, a psychic claims to be extraordinarily sensitive to forces and influences beyond human senses. In some unexplained way he or she has this ability to see, feel or perceive spirits and events from the past, the future or from the beyond, in the realm of the dead or in the spirit world. Try a Google search and you will come up with dozens of sites by Dawn, Margaret, Dr. Loren, Jonathan, Georgia, etc. —all claiming natural-born, intuitive psychic powers. They simply have these powers and you are invited to hire them to do anything from contacting your deceased uncle to working with the police to discover who murdered Sam Jones. They'll even help you locate your lost dog.

What got me started was the article quoted in yesterday's blog about fake mediums. What I want to do today is to ask what Holy Scriptures have to say about these folks. Are there such people? Do some really have psychic powers? Is that what God's revelation says? The brief answer is yes, but we do need to do some sorting out.

Here's a brief, incomplete list of some of the prominent psychics in the Bible:

• Jacob - dreamed and beheld a flight of stairs reaching up to heaven (Gen. 28:11-22)
• Joseph - dreamed of future glory and interpreted others' dreams (Gen.37:5-11; 40:1-23; 41:15-37)
• Balaam the Diviner - saw the Angel of the LORD and Israel's glory (Num. 22:1-40; 23:1-25)
• Samuel, the Seer - guided Israel and chose her first kings (1 Samuel 9:15-10:20, etc.)
• Gad, one of David's Seers (1 Chr. 21:9-30) - Seers and prophets - I Sam. 9:9.
• Nathan, the Prophet (1 Kings 1:8-45) 
• Iddo, the Seer and visionary (2 Chr. 9:29)
• Prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Amos, Micah, etc.
• Joseph, step-father of Jesus, was guided by his dreams (Matt. 1:20-25; 2:13-20). 
• Peter, the Apostle - had a vision of unclean food to eat (Acts 10:9-18)
• Paul, the Apostle - caught up to the third heaven (2 Cor. 12:2-5)
• John, the Apostle - saw a vision on the Lord's Day (Rev. 1:10) 
• Prophets from Jerusalem - foretold a great world-wide famine (Acts 11:27-30)
• Philip the evangelist had four unmarried daughters who prophesied (Acts 21:9-10)
• Agabus the prophet from Judea - predicted Paul's imprisonment (Acts 21:10-12)

As you can see, there have always been men and women who saw the future, had visions from God, predicted disasters for nations and individuals, and interpreted dreams. There still are. What's the difference between them and those who turn their backs upon God's revealed Word to claim they have natural-born, intuitive psychic powers, some even claiming to be in contact with the dead? Here is guidance from the Word: 

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. - 1Jo 4:1-3 ESV

As you can see, there are spirits and there are spirits. Some are from God and some are of the antichrist which is already in the world. What's this spirit of the antichrist? The reference to the antichrist is unique to John. Anyone in touch with, guided by or influenced by some spirit that does not confess and openly acknowledge that Jesus is the promised Messiah, God's Son come in human flesh to be Savior and Lord, is not from God! This one is led by the spirit of the antichrist. 

Ultimately, all such spirits are under the active influence of the prince of this present darkness, Satan or the devil. The Apostle Paul so teaches in his letter to the Thessalonians.

Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. - 2Th 2:3-12 ESV

It is for this reason that Moses warned all believers long ago to avoid all contact with such psychics and mediums. We do well to heed his warning. 

"Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the LORD your God. - Lev 19:31 ESV

There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD. And because of these abominations the LORD your God is driving them out before you. - Deut 18:10-12 ESV

More needs to be said about those prophets who do confess Jesus Christ. I'll take that up next time.