Second guessing prophetic dream?

[Ponkblossom3]

So back in May I had my 4th prophetic dream. (The first 3 I had all seen come to pass). Now that we are getting close to a point in our lives that the dream could be coming true, I am second guessing it. It has been more of the far-fetched ones of the 4, although I definitely know nothing is impossible for God. What if I mistakenly thought it was a prophetic dream when it was just another regular dream? I have a keen sense in my dreams knowing when they are prophetic, but what if this time I am wrong? What if I was mistaken for what it meant? I suffer with OCD and anxiety so I am very fearful of labeling something as being prophetic and clearly being God speaking to me and it not actually being so. Do any of you suffer from the second guessing with the gift of prophesy? How do you move beyond it?

 

[Baby Alice]

In my experience when you have dreams like this, the ones you fret over don't usually come to pass. You said you have axiety, was the dream about something worrying? If it was it might just be your mind over thinking it because of your previous dreams.

 

[Ponkblossom3]

In my experience when you have dreams like this, the ones you fret over don't usually come to pass. You said you have axiety, was the dream about something worrying? If it was it might just be your mind over thinking it because of your previous dreams.

Thanks for your response! No the dream wasn’t about anything worrying. It was a dream about us moving somewhere I’ve felt called to for almost my entire life. I have anxiety that maybe its because it’s something I’ve wanted so badly for so long that I fabricated it (but I really deep down know it was prophetic, the OCD makes me question things though). I’m just afraid to get my hopes up because I really want it to happen. And I know it doesn’t necessarily mean we’re moving there right now, it could even be decades down the road.

 

[Richard T]

Unless you are sharing your dreams to many, why fret? If it does not come to pass, it may have been conditional or just a regular dream. Of course the devil seeing the first three dreams might try to mimic one and throw you a curve ball. Ho real harm or foul either way, just fine tune your discernment and continue in God expecting more good things to follow, including dreams and other gifts to edify and build up the body.

 

[tdidymas]

So back in May I had my 4th prophetic dream. (The first 3 I had all seen come to pass). Now that we are getting close to a point in our lives that the dream could be coming true, I am second guessing it. It has been more of the far-fetched ones of the 4, although I definitely know nothing is impossible for God. What if I mistakenly thought it was a prophetic dream when it was just another regular dream? I have a keen sense in my dreams knowing when they are prophetic, but what if this time I am wrong? What if I was mistaken for what it meant? I suffer with OCD and anxiety so I am very fearful of labeling something as being prophetic and clearly being God speaking to me and it not actually being so. Do any of you suffer from the second guessing with the gift of prophesy? How do you move beyond it?

If you trust God with all your heart, then you won't worry about it, because God is ultimately in control. Your anxiety might be because you may think you have to make it happen.
TD

 

[Francis Drake]

So back in May I had my 4th prophetic dream. (The first 3 I had all seen come to pass). Now that we are getting close to a point in our lives that the dream could be coming true, I am second guessing it. It has been more of the far-fetched ones of the 4, although I definitely know nothing is impossible for God. What if I mistakenly thought it was a prophetic dream when it was just another regular dream? I have a keen sense in my dreams knowing when they are prophetic, but what if this time I am wrong? What if I was mistaken for what it meant? I suffer with OCD and anxiety so I am very fearful of labeling something as being prophetic and clearly being God speaking to me and it not actually being so. Do any of you suffer from the second guessing with the gift of prophesy? How do you move beyond it?

I have to say that I would be more concerned about the OCD than the dream.

Obsessions and compulsions speak of demonic inroads in your life. Jesus came to set you free from such things in order that you can live in his complete peace.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

God's written Word is the most reliable foundation for guidance, and prophecy is less reliable, and dreams are the least reliable. I would test every "prophetic" dream with the Word of God, and if it seems consistent, the I would wait and see what happens. I would not make any serious decisions based on a dream, no matter how "prophetic" it may seem.

 

[sea5763]

That’s cool that you have prophetic dreams. I used to wish that I did so badly that I became delusional and thought I was when I wasn’t. Then God actually spoke to me in a dream and told me when I asked Him about it that “you are not sent”, so I finally came to realize that I wasn’t. But right after I woke up from the dream I had a vision of nuclear radiation wafting towards California but no one dying from it, which happened a few years later after the massive earthquake in Japan and the nuclear reactor broke in the earthquake and spewed radiation. But in the vision there was no message about it. I think being a prophet means you see the future AND God gives you a message related to the future event to relay to people. The other time something similar happened was a dream I had. In the dream I was on an airplane and at first all the people were calm and just minding their own business but then at some point they began to panic and realize they were all going to die. Some of them starting screaming while others tried to say goodbye to loved ones. Then the panic reached a fever pitch right as the plane was heading for a skyscraper. At the moment that the plane was to hit the skyscraper I woke up drenched in sweat. The dream scared me so bad that I couldn’t go back to sleep for a couple of hours. Then when I got to school that morning they showed us footage of an airplane crashing into a skyscraper. It was 9/11 and it had happened a couple of hours earlier around the same time I had the dream. I guess that one wasn’t prophetic it was in real time. There was no message to the dream. It just was.

 

[Jesus4life<3]

So back in May I had my 4th prophetic dream. (The first 3 I had all seen come to pass). Now that we are getting close to a point in our lives that the dream could be coming true, I am second guessing it. It has been more of the far-fetched ones of the 4, although I definitely know nothing is impossible for God. What if I mistakenly thought it was a prophetic dream when it was just another regular dream? I have a keen sense in my dreams knowing when they are prophetic, but what if this time I am wrong? What if I was mistaken for what it meant? I suffer with OCD and anxiety so I am very fearful of labeling something as being prophetic and clearly being God speaking to me and it not actually being so. Do any of you suffer from the second guessing with the gift of prophesy? How do you move beyond it?

I am the exact same. Prophetic, I also deal with a lot of fear and anxiety. Deep down I know that something is from God but then I constantly second guess it. This is the enemy trying to fill you with doubt and hinder your gifts.

 

[JCFantasy23]

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This particular topic belongs in the Spiritual Gift's sub-forum, Sign Gifts. Please continue your discussion here.​

 

[DreamerOfTheHeart]

So back in May I had my 4th prophetic dream. (The first 3 I had all seen come to pass). Now that we are getting close to a point in our lives that the dream could be coming true, I am second guessing it. It has been more of the far-fetched ones of the 4, although I definitely know nothing is impossible for God. What if I mistakenly thought it was a prophetic dream when it was just another regular dream? I have a keen sense in my dreams knowing when they are prophetic, but what if this time I am wrong? What if I was mistaken for what it meant? I suffer with OCD and anxiety so I am very fearful of labeling something as being prophetic and clearly being God speaking to me and it not actually being so. Do any of you suffer from the second guessing with the gift of prophesy? How do you move beyond it?

'A prophecy is not subject to the interpretation of the prophet'.

So, this is normal behavior. An attempt to try and understand the message given. You might think it is 'this', or you might think it is 'that'. But, nothing will really fit, until you find the right key for that lock.

For something which is great, this is what people are prone to do. It is how we work.

We are given a door. This is the prophetic message, in whatever form it comes. It has a lock on it. The world is full of keys. We want to get inside, naturally. So, we search around. Sometimes, we have to wait.

But, we always have to try. Because, we really want to get inside.

I have been given many doors, though, these days I have an universal key. But, I am always working, at this. In days past, I had many doors. And, I had to try this key, or that key. I had to keep trying, keep seeking. For year after year, decade after decade, at times.

 

[Francis Drake]

God's written Word is the most reliable foundation for guidance, and prophecy is less reliable, and dreams are the least reliable.

Not true!
Not even the bible itself makes that claim about itself!
Nor do the countless stories related within your bibles confirm such a conclusion.

I agree the scriptures are the most reliable foundation for life, but for close personal direction that is solely the job of the Holy Spirit.
And limiting God to speaking via scriptures alone is putting a man made gag on Him.

I would test every "prophetic" dream with the Word of God, and if it seems consistent, the I would wait and see what happens.

There is no scriptural basis for such a commonly made claim, and given the nature of most prophetic dreams, it would be a fruitless task anyway.
How would Paul have checked his dream of the man from Macedonia in the scriptures?
How would Pilate's wife have found confirmation of her dream in a bible, if she had one?
How would Joseph have known from the bible what to do when he found that Mary was pregnant?
How would Nebuchadnezzar have confirmed his dreams about the great image with the head of gold in the bible.
How would Pharaoh have confirmed his dreams about the 7 years famine from a bible.
How would the wise men have confirmed their dreams about not returning to Herod by searching the scriptures?

In contrast to checking the bible to confirm the veracity of dreams, the reverse happened and these dreams were subsequently added as a part the bible!

I would not make any serious decisions based on a dream, no matter how "prophetic" it may seem.

Unbiblical fearmongering.
I have made many serious decisions based on dreams (or visions etc.), and they have always been very fruitful.
And the vast majority impossible to confirm from scripture.

Here are 2 examples from an endless list of experiences.-
1). Back in the 80s, the brand new double heating system in a big building project had failed. Since installation and commissioning, it had kept shutting down after 20 minutes or so of running, and I was now in big trouble as the building hand over deadline was a few days away.
We tried all sorts of things and had various specialists opinions, but nobody had an idea of the cause.
I was now facing a financial penalty if I didn't resolve it by the due date in a few days time.
Then one night, I had a dream where the Lord in technicolor detail showed the cause of the problem. As soon as I arrived at the site, the fault was confirmed and easily rectified, much to the amazement of those concerned.
To claim I could get that information from a bible is laughable.

2). In 2014, my wife and I sold up and moved hundreds of miles to a new part of the UK.
Again that was on the basis of revelatory dreams, visions etc. No scriptures were consulted.

After contemplating the dreams and words and finally making the decision to immediately put our house on the market, I walked out the front door to do something.
Whilst still on my doorstep a complete stranger passing by greeted me and we started to chat, and in the middle of that I mentioned we would be moving soon.
He asked how much we were selling for and immediately offered the full price.
Within 5 minutes of the decision I had sold the house to a complete stranger for the full price and he didn't even want to look inside!

We moved to the new area and rented for a short while, whilst looking at properties. Then, as before, the Lord via a dream showed us which house and also showed us how to buy it, as it was outside our price range.
Again, it is laughable to claim any of this could be found in the bible.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

Not true!
Not even the bible itself makes that claim about itself!
Nor do the countless stories related within your bibles confirm such a conclusion.

I agree the scriptures are the most reliable foundation for life, but for close personal direction that is solely the job of the Holy Spirit.
And limiting God to speaking via scriptures alone is putting a man made gag on Him.

There is no scriptural basis for such a commonly made claim, and given the nature of most prophetic dreams, it would be a fruitless task anyway.
How would Paul have checked his dream of the man from Macedonia in the scriptures?
How would Pilate's wife have found confirmation of her dream in a bible, if she had one?
How would Joseph have known from the bible what to do when he found that Mary was pregnant?
How would Nebuchadnezzar have confirmed his dreams about the great image with the head of gold in the bible.
How would Pharaoh have confirmed his dreams about the 7 years famine from a bible.
How would the wise men have confirmed their dreams about not returning to Herod by searching the scriptures?

In contrast to checking the bible to confirm the veracity of dreams, the reverse happened and these dreams were subsequently added as a part the bible!

Unbiblical fearmongering.
I have made many serious decisions based on dreams (or visions etc.), and they have always been very fruitful.
And the vast majority impossible to confirm from scripture.

Here are 2 examples from an endless list of experiences.-
1). Back in the 80s, the brand new double heating system in a big building project had failed. Since installation and commissioning, it had kept shutting down after 20 minutes or so of running, and I was now in big trouble as the building hand over deadline was a few days away.
We tried all sorts of things and had various specialists opinions, but nobody had an idea of the cause.
I was now facing a financial penalty if I didn't resolve it by the due date in a few days time.
Then one night, I had a dream where the Lord in technicolor detail showed the cause of the problem. As soon as I arrived at the site, the fault was confirmed and easily rectified, much to the amazement of those concerned.
To claim I could get that information from a bible is laughable.

2). In 2014, my wife and I sold up and moved hundreds of miles to a new part of the UK.
Again that was on the basis of revelatory dreams, visions etc. No scriptures were consulted.

After contemplating the dreams and words and finally making the decision to immediately put our house on the market, I walked out the front door to do something.
Whilst still on my doorstep a complete stranger passing by greeted me and we started to chat, and in the middle of that I mentioned we would be moving soon.
He asked how much we were selling for and immediately offered the full price.
Within 5 minutes of the decision I had sold the house to a complete stranger for the full price and he didn't even want to look inside!

We moved to the new area and rented for a short while, whilst looking at properties. Then, as before, the Lord via a dream showed us which house and also showed us how to buy it, as it was outside our price range.
Again, it is laughable to claim any of this could be found in the bible.

I'm not disputing your experience at all. No one can say they know everything that God does when He guides people. Just because one person has certain types of guidance and another is guided a different way doesn't mean that either is wrong.

I think there is a difference between presumption and faith. And the difference can be so slight that one needs to be very sensitive to the Holy Spirit to know when one is acting in faith or if it is just presumption.

I guess I have seen too many stupid and harmful decisions and actions made by people who have claimed to have had dreams and prophecies which have resulted in trauma and disaster for them and those around them.

I was trained by a very wise, mature, experienced pastor in the ministry of the Holy Spirit and he was very particular about the need for anyone involved in the prophetic needing to be people of prayer and of the Word.

A good expression and very true is that a person who has the Word and not the Spirit can dry up, with the Spirit and without the Word they can blow up, but with both they grow up.

Prayer and fellowship with God allows us to be sensitive to the voice of the Spirit, and the Word helps us to know which is the Holy Spirit and which is another spirit.

I don't consciously check in the Bible for every decision I make either. I have been reading and studying it for 51 years, and have been fellowshipping with the Lord in the Spirit 49 years, so with maturity and experience I have learned to distinguish between what is the Spirit and what is just me.

 

[Francis Drake]

I'm not disputing your experience at all. No one can say they know everything that God does when He guides people. Just because one person has certain types of guidance and another is guided a different way doesn't mean that either is wrong.

Ok, but you presented just one side, that everything has to be checked against scripture. Its the same mantra everybody thoughtlessly quotes, the moment prophecy dreams or visions are mentioned.

I guess I have seen too many stupid and harmful decisions and actions made by people who have claimed to have had dreams and prophecies which have resulted in trauma and disaster for them and those around them.

Haven't we all, but the answer isn't to create a climate of fear about dreams and prophecies. Mature Christians should encourage such things, whilst also refining the understanding and interpretation of them.

I was trained by a very wise, mature, experienced pastor in the ministry of the Holy Spirit and he was very particular about the need for anyone involved in the prophetic needing to be people of prayer and of the Word.

I'm sorry, but that is not what scripture teaches Oscarr! The gifts are for all, not just theologians.
My son at the age of three had a razor sharp prophetic word about buying a house. He was hardly a man of prayer and the word, yet the prophecy with absolutely no control from us, came to pass over three months later, 2 hours short of the last possible cut off time.

Had we fearfully checked our bible, we would have completely missed God's plans for us. Instead, we ignored the bible and went back to God for confirmation, and then simply claimed it in faith.

A good expression and very true is that a person who has the Word and not the Spirit can dry up, with the Spirit and without the Word they can blow up, but with both they grow up.

Yawn, that has to be the most tedious overused of "Christian" mantras.
Despite that expression, even today those with the word still do their level best to crush those with the Spirit.
And that is in effect what you did in your earlier by demanding that everything must be checked against scripture. An absurd notion in the vast majority of cases.

Prayer and fellowship with God allows us to be sensitive to the voice of the Spirit, and the Word helps us to know which is the Holy Spirit and which is another spirit.

Sorry, that is patently not true despite how many times you say it.
The scriptures can mean anything any fool wants it to mean. The 2000 years of heresies prior to the reawakening of the gifts prove that beyond doubt. ie. With no help from dreams and visions, the scholarly theologians of the church split the body of Christ into tens of thousands of denominations and cults.
Again I say, all without the aid of dreamers and visionaries to mislead them.

I don't consciously check in the Bible for every decision I make either. I have been reading and studying it for 51 years, and have been fellowshipping with the Lord in the Spirit 49 years, so with maturity and experience I have learned to distinguish between what is the Spirit and what is just me.

So why do you discourage others from learning the difference?

Matt18v2And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, 3And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Instead of the above, Christians seem to believe that they must stop being children before their heavenly father. Instead, they must become theologians if they want to access heaven!

 

[Lost4words]

'A prophecy is not subject to the interpretation of the prophet'.

So, this is normal behavior. An attempt to try and understand the message given. You might think it is 'this', or you might think it is 'that'. But, nothing will really fit, until you find the right key for that lock.

For something which is great, this is what people are prone to do. It is how we work.

We are given a door. This is the prophetic message, in whatever form it comes. It has a lock on it. The world is full of keys. We want to get inside, naturally. So, we search around. Sometimes, we have to wait.

But, we always have to try. Because, we really want to get inside.

I have been given many doors, though, these days I have an universal key. But, I am always working, at this. In days past, I had many doors. And, I had to try this key, or that key. I had to keep trying, keep seeking. For year after year, decade after decade, at times.

Must be a blessing having all the answers then?

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

Ok, but you presented just one side, that everything has to be checked against scripture. Its the same mantra everybody thoughtlessly quotes, the moment prophecy dreams or visions are mentioned.

Haven't we all, but the answer isn't to create a climate of fear about dreams and prophecies. Mature Christians should encourage such things, whilst also refining the understanding and interpretation of them.

I'm sorry, but that is not what scripture teaches Oscarr! The gifts are for all, not just theologians.
My son at the age of three had a razor sharp prophetic word about buying a house. He was hardly a man of prayer and the word, yet the prophecy with absolutely no control from us, came to pass over three months later, 2 hours short of the last possible cut off time.

Had we fearfully checked our bible, we would have completely missed God's plans for us. Instead, we ignored the bible and went back to God for confirmation, and then simply claimed it in faith.

Yawn, that has to be the most tedious overused of "Christian" mantras.
Despite that expression, even today those with the word still do their level best to crush those with the Spirit.
And that is in effect what you did in your earlier by demanding that everything must be checked against scripture. An absurd notion in the vast majority of cases.

Sorry, that is patently not true despite how many times you say it.
The scriptures can mean anything any fool wants it to mean. The 2000 years of heresies prior to the reawakening of the gifts prove that beyond doubt. ie. With no help from dreams and visions, the scholarly theologians of the church split the body of Christ into tens of thousands of denominations and cults.
Again I say, all without the aid of dreamers and visionaries to mislead them.

So why do you discourage others from learning the difference?

Matt18v2And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, 3And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Instead of the above, Christians seem to believe that they must stop being children before their heavenly father. Instead, they must become theologians if they want to access heaven!

I think we have to be very careful about sensory experiences because the spirit of divination can be such a close counterfeit of the Holy Spirit, that it takes a person of maturity and experience in the Lord to be able to tell them apart. A demonic impression, dream, vision, can be totally accurate because demons know us as well as we know ourselves. I think that we need to especially sober and vigilant in these days because we are in the last days when there is an explosion of the counterfeit that we have never seen before.

 

[Lost4words]

99.9% of the dreams i have i cannot remember. 99.9% of the dreams are odd or weird.

I can remember last nights dream though! I sat down, on a sofa with my Rosary and either it was my late Dad or St Padre Pio that sat down next to me with their Rosary too. I then woke up

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

That’s cool that you have prophetic dreams. I used to wish that I did so badly that I became delusional and thought I was when I wasn’t. Then God actually spoke to me in a dream and told me when I asked Him about it that “you are not sent”, so I finally came to realize that I wasn’t. But right after I woke up from the dream I had a vision of nuclear radiation wafting towards California but no one dying from it, which happened a few years later after the massive earthquake in Japan and the nuclear reactor broke in the earthquake and spewed radiation. But in the vision there was no message about it. I think being a prophet means you see the future AND God gives you a message related to the future event to relay to people. The other time something similar happened was a dream I had. In the dream I was on an airplane and at first all the people were calm and just minding their own business but then at some point they began to panic and realize they were all going to die. Some of them starting screaming while others tried to say goodbye to loved ones. Then the panic reached a fever pitch right as the plane was heading for a skyscraper. At the moment that the plane was to hit the skyscraper I woke up drenched in sweat. The dream scared me so bad that I couldn’t go back to sleep for a couple of hours. Then when I got to school that morning they showed us footage of an airplane crashing into a skyscraper. It was 9/11 and it had happened a couple of hours earlier around the same time I had the dream. I guess that one wasn’t prophetic it was in real time. There was no message to the dream. It just was.

If a dream brings fear and terror, then it is not of God, even though it seemed accurate.

Recently I watched a movie starring Richard Burton called "The Medusa Touch" (1978), which had a jumbo jet flying into a high-rise building with great loss of life in the aircraft, building and the area around it. Obviously, someone thought of it long before 9/11!

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

Must be a blessing having all the answers then?

It is interesting that the devil told Eve that if she ate the fruit she would be as God and have all the answers! Trouble is, she lost God and her mortality, and her action affected the whole world from then on. I'd rather leave all the answers to God and then live blissfully happy in my ignorance!

 

[Francis Drake]

I think we have to be very careful about sensory experiences because the spirit of divination can be such a close counterfeit of the Holy Spirit, that it takes a person of maturity and experience in the Lord to be able to tell them apart.

Nobody would challenge that Oscarr, but that's not what we are talking about here.

A demonic impression, dream, vision, can be totally accurate because demons know us as well as we know ourselves.

Of course, but that's no more of a problem than demonic inspired teaching in the church.

I think that we need to especially sober and vigilant in these days because we are in the last days when there is an explosion of the counterfeit that we have never seen before.

I don't believe there's any more counterfeit today than there always has been.

I cannot see any connection between this and my post. The principles you constantly push offers no special protection against these problems.