Dream Encounters by Barbie Breathitt

hearts of those who seek to have spiritual understanding of their dreams.

A true dreamer is one who sees the impossible, and knows through God it will become possible. Dreamers are able to see the shadow of things to come as if by moonlight, by joining their faith to believe, the rays of the morning’s dawn bring the understanding and visionary clarity.

In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men as they slumber in their beds, He may speak in their ears and terrify them with warnings, to turn man from wrongdoing and keep him from pride, to preserve his soul from the pit, his life from perishing by the sword (Job 33:15–18 NIV).

A fantastic, almost nightmarish, and horrific dream sequence is recorded in Genesis 15:12–13 when Abram the patriarch was cast into the dream realm by hearing the voice of the Lord as a deep sleep fell over him.

As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years” (NIV).

God spoke to Abram in the night seasons so that Abram would listen and hear God’s voice while in a peaceful state. Dreams unlock the deepest depths of knowledge and understanding as we peacefully rest in God’s embrace. Dreams allow our hearts to express our inner beliefs in a grand way.

Abram’s descendant Jacob experienced a desert sleep, which allowed him to see a heavenly stairway that joined the gateway of heaven to an entrance point on earth. The Lord’s angelic messengers were ascending and descending upon the ladder delivering the Lord’s prophetic declarations and visions to Jacob as he slept.

Genesis 28:10–17 is an account of this heavenly event: Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones 18