Dreams are dreams not messages from God in the 21st century. In the scriptures some people received messages from God in their dreams but that is not a license to claim that any unusual dream a person has is a message from God.
I was listening to this fellow Andrew Klavan on-line podcast the other day. He has the goofy, slapstick humor of comedians like Ted Skelton used to engage in, but through all humor the wisdom that he possesses is often striking.
He is a recent convert to Christianity from the life of a secular Jew, and in the process of getting to here from there, he really struggled with the question if it was really God's voice that was calling him to Baptism, and not just his own voice telling him what he wanted to hear. In the end, he came to the realization that it was really God's voice, but he really had to think it through to the end, and "reality test" that inner voice against the logic of Scripture itself.
Dreams can likewise be amazing tools. We as a rule do not generate our own dreams. They happen to us, streaming along in our inner lives and drawing us into their narrative.
And where do they originate from? Frpom an angel, or a demon, random firings of neurons, or a piece of undigested meat sitting uncomfortably in our belly?
Dreams, like the still, small voice of God, are of the category of phenomena known as signs and wonders. They expand our sense of reality and may serve to prepare us form the world that we are faced with tomorrow. They are therefore important to us. They are our connection to a world that is outside of our own will, and yet as close to us as our own minds.
We cannot however, take them at face value. Their source must be tested, and the means to do that is to do the work and test that dream against Scripture, and against the teachings of Traditional Christianity too, to ensure that there is no contradictions. The voice of God cannot contradict itself, for any house divided will not stand.
