Many cessationists are conditioned to think that if dreams are sometimes taken seriously as messages from the Holy Spirit, that it automatically assumes the dreamer of dreams is a SELF-EXALTING, PROPHET-BRAGGER, OR A CULT LEADER, OR A FALSE APOSTLE. What they fail to admit is that they do the same thing with Bible teachers and evangelists like Billy Graham and John MacArthur, but instead of using the word “prophet,” they’ll say, “That guy is solid,” but let’s be honest, the level of honor and respect they pay to them sometimes approaches cult leader status. And what do they do when they find out that R.C. Sproul didn’t believe in a literal Hell of fire and eternal punishment? He just believed in some vague “separation from God” concept…they give him a pass. At least he didn’t go off the deep end into dream interpretation. Are these equal weights and measures? No. The reality is, the Bible plainly teaches that the psychological experience of dreams can indeed be brought under the guidance of Biblical sanctification, and be useful for encouraging, exhorting, warning, urging, and comforting Christians (1 Cor. 14:3): not only on a moral level, but also on a supernatural level as future events or heart secrets can sometimes be revealed to specific Christians when other Christians take Bible-based dream interpretation and “prophecy” seriously.

I believe that the dream interpretations below could possibly be of the heart secrets category, for certain readers of my blog or my podcast listeners (1 Cor. 14:25). I usually follow Ira Milligan’s Understanding the Dreams You Dream (Treasure House, 1993), as a help to my dream interpretations, but I always consider the Bible as primary for that. For cessationists who might have trouble understanding the validity of dreams in the Christian life, I would point you to Archibald Alexander’s Thoughts on Religious Experience, which was published by BANNER OF TRUTH in 1996. I did a podcast recording and commentary on chapter 7 from that book, which explains how dream interpretation was accepted in the 1800s by Bible believers. There are a few 1600s and 1700s dreams and prophecies of Dutch Reformed people mentioned in Thomas Boys’ The Suppressed Evidence, pgs. 305-312. Dr. Jack Deere also has a great teaching about dreams in chapter 10 of Why I Am Still Surprised by the Voice of God (Zondervan, 2022). He used to be an Old Testament professor at Dallas Theological Seminary. He also implies in chapter 3 that George Wishart, John Knox, and many of the Covenanter pastors in Scotland for over a hundred years, used to interpret dreams and sometimes share them as prophetic words from the pulpit. The Methodists in the 1700s continued to have prophetic dreams and were journaled in The Supernatural Occurrences of John Wesley, ch. 9. “Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good” (1 Thess. 5:20-21). –J.B.

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IN THE LAST DAYS, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream DREAMS.   –Acts 2:17; cf. 1 Corinthians 1:7

That the Spirit should be in them a Spirit of prophecy; by the Spirit they should be enabled to foretell things to come, and to preach the gospel to every creature. This power shall be given without distinction of sex–now only your sons, but your daughters shall prophesy; without distinction of age–both your young men and your old men shall see visions, and dream dreams, and in them receive divine revelations, to be communicated to the church; and without distinction of outward condition–even the servants and handmaids shall receive of the Spirit, and shall prophesy (Acts 2:18); or, in general, men and women, whom God calls his servants and his handmaids. In the beginning of the age of prophecy in the Old Testament there were schools of the prophets, and, before that, the Spirit of prophecy came upon the elders of Israel that were appointed to the government; but now the Spirit shall be poured out upon persons of inferior rank, and such as were not brought up in the schools of the prophets, for the kingdom of the Messiah is to be purely spiritual. The mention of the daughters (Acts 2:17) and the handmaidens (Acts 2:18) would make one think that the women who were taken notice of (Acts 1:14) received the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost, as well as the men. Philip, the evangelist, had four daughters who did prophesy (Acts 21:9), and St. Paul, finding abundance of the gifts both of tongues and prophecy in the church of Corinth, saw it needful to prohibit women’s use of those gifts in public, 1 Corinthians 14:26, 34. —MATTHEW HENRY’S COMMENTARY

In young men the outward sense, are most vigorous, and the bodily strength is entire, whereby they are best qualified to sustain the shock which usually attends the visions of God. In old men the internal senses are most vigorous, suited to divine dreams. Not that the old are wholly excluded from the former, nor the young from the latter. —JOHN WESLEY’S EXPLANATORY NOTES

If an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and are brought under judgment by all, as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!”   –1 Corinthians 14:24-25

As these, who were the prophets or teachers, had often the discernment of spirits, they were able in certain cases, and probably very frequently, to tell a man the secrets of his own heart; and, where this was not directly the case, God often led his ministers to speak those things that were suitable to the case before them, though they themselves had no particular design. The sinner, therefore, convinced that God alone could uncover the secrets of his heart, would be often obliged to fall down on his face, abashed and confounded, and acknowledge that God was truly among them. This seems to be the plain meaning of the passages before us. —ADAM CLARKE COMMENTARY

I was one of the million in my state who just went through the Category 4 Hurricane Helene, and lost my power to an extreme extent; and so as an evacuee currently staying somewhere else, I’m not currently at my home where I normally do audio recordings of prophetic words. But I had some dreams recently and I’m going to share them along with their interpretations:

1. DREAM OF A PASTOR WHO IS CONFUSED ABOUT LEGALISM. I dreamed that a certain pastor is confused about what Biblical holiness means; and so his only concept of holiness is what people like to call “legalism,” which is a made up word that doesn’t exist in any of the Bible translations. The idea here is one of extreme judging of other people–whether family, friends, or church members. This concept, whatever you want to call it, should really be called CENSORIOUSNESS according to the old Puritan way of definition. This thing called CENSORIOUSNESS actually is taught against in the Bible. First by Jesus in Matthew 7:1-5 and secondly by Paul in Romans 14. Although the word “censoriousness” is not a Bible word, the teaching is clear enough from long passages to say with confidence that the teaching isn’t made up, but that it is Biblically grounded and within its context. What we today like to call NITPICKING is what the Puritans used to call CENSORIOUSNESS. While this is a sin described in the Bible, its not such a horrible sin, that it comes up to the level of breaking one of the Ten Commandments. In my dream I saw the pastor extremely and harshly judge and rebuke his son for showing up to a Bible study at church in his soccer outfit, with cleats that had dirt on them. It was then that I knew in my spirit, that is, I knew that I knew, that this pastor was being petty or what they call being nitpicky: he calls that thing LEGALISM, and although its spiritually wrong to act that way, none of these words: legalism, censoriousness, or nitpicky–none of them come close to what the Bible means by holiness. At least the way that traditional Methodists and Wesleyans have understood it: Biblical holiness boils down to loving the God of the Bible with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength; and loving your neighbor as yourself; and all within the framework of Ten Commandments awareness and the Cross.

Love is never meant to be understood in such a way that the Ten Commandments are ignored. To antinomianly act like that would be how a gangster carries himself. At the same time, holy love for God and neighbor doesn’t mean you can’t REBUKE people for breaking the holy commandments of God that you’ve come to know and love, especially if you see people getting into things that are leading them to Hell and damnation. When you find other Christians that agree with this principle, then you’ll experience koinonia around them. But if you’re going to “judge,” then make sure those judgments are righteous ones based on actual evidence; and are serious enough to be considered spiritual felonies, and the REBUKES based on those judgments are damnation-related and SALVATION-RELATED REBUKES. Not about dirt clods and soccer cleats: or minor unspiritual issues that just don’t matter. But if its about Ten Commandments related things–like TV shows, movies, music, video games, conversation, business un-ethics, and other general behavior that pollutes and perverts people’s minds against the laws of God–things that make an outward display of breaking the Ten Commandments, make a big thing out of it, then REBUKE ‘EM! Don’t be that dumb dog that cannot bark. Let ‘er loose! BARK! BARK! BARK! AND WARN ‘EM ALL, AS IF THEY’RE THE PEOPLE OF SODOM AND GOMORRAH, OF NINEVEH AND CHORAZIN! Its the types of things that drag their souls down to Hell: its for those that are “the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars,” that “shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone” (Revelation 21:8, KJV).

2. DREAM OF AN UNREPENTANT BIBLE STUDENT. I dreamed that I confronted a man who has been attending a Bible study group for a very long time, but has an unrepentant or impenitent heart. I was urging him and trying to tell him that’s what the Pharisees were like: they didn’t read the Bible in order to obey it better. They just read it. To people like this the brother of Jesus said, “Get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.  Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like” (James 1:21-24). Again and again I pleaded with this man to stop reading and studying the Bible in such an apathetic manner. Bible study is not supposed to be about understanding Israelite maps and deserts. Its about the interpretation and application of Biblical principles to your heart and life. This was the old Methodist way of using the Bible; and anything less than this God can clearly see; and will bring into judgment against any wicked soul who thinks they can mock God with such a hypocritical, apathetic, and agnostic approach to the Scriptures. “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life” (Galatians 6:7-8). Don’t be like a spiritually dead Pharisee! Be a disciple of Jesus and actually try to do what the Bible says when you learn about some new principle within it. Revelation 20:11-15: “I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hell delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.”

3. DREAM OF TWO PEOPLE RELYING ON “ANTI-PELAGIANISM” (ANTI-FINNEY) THEOLOGY TO EXCUSE THEIR SINFUL LIFESTYLES. I dreamed that these two people who don’t know each other, but who know who I am, are in a backslidden condition. One was a woman, one was a man. They were living in fornication; and were at least agreed with antinomian types of Calvinists that Finney should not be listened to because he was into “Pelagianism,” a doctrine which they called a monster. But they couldn’t see that this was just a lame excuse for their impenitence in sexual immorality. I agreed with them that Pelagianism is a monster compared with a proper Wesleyan understanding of grace and free will. Pelagianism has such an optimistic view of human nature that it sets people up for failure, leading them to perfectionistically believe that everyone can be an infallible pope. But dwelling too much upon this topic boils down to just another intellectual distraction from Biblical sanctification.

4. DREAM OF A DENOMINATION BEING PENTECOSTAL IN NAME ONLY. I dreamed that I was reading a book that was apparently written by Dr. Vinson Synan, the Pentecostal historian. I was on a page where he had listed off all sorts of things, and when I came to one of the bullets, it had the name of a certain Pentecostal denomination. And I could overhear Dr. Synan’s voice in my dream. He was defending Pentecostalism with a very weak and unpersuasive argument to one of his evangelical critics. He said, “Pentecostalism has accomplished so much in its time. We even have a legacy institution with the word Pentecostal in it,” as if this really mattered spiritually. It was then that I knew in my spirit, or knew that I knew, that this specific denomination was spiritually backslidden and PENTECOSTAL IN NAME ONLY. And so just to be careful, I got my pen and scribbled out that specific Pentecostal denomination from the list in my book. When faced with a lukewarm, backslidden, nominal form of Pentecostalism, the only way to maintain your Pentecostal faith is to pull away from such expressions of unbelief, as they can do far more damage than living out your Pentecostal experience somewhere else.

5. DREAM OF A WORLDLY FATHER UNWILLING TO BE RECONCILED TO HIS REAL CHRISTIAN SON. I dreamed that the son in question was at first a boy and part of a class at a public school; and he was experiencing conflict problems with troubled kids at school, as were other kids. The boy went to the school counselor, and through her, had invited all the kids and their parents to come to the counselor’s office, and watch a conflict resolution video together. The video taught people how to apologize to others for specific actions of hurtful behavior towards others; and then to forgive those hurts and patch things up afterwards. Then the video was over and the kids started to leave with their parents. The boy who put together the event remained afterwards; and saw a smashed green pea on the ground that some other kid had left behind. He picked it up and threw it away. Then the boy left the room with his dad, and they began to walk down the hallway, as they were heading home. The boy and his father began to walk and talk; but I couldn’t tell about what; and then the boy was changed into a fully grown man. “Dad, what fellowship can light have with darkness?” the son said, referring to 2 Corinthians 6:14, which is from the main passage on separation from the world. The dad kept his sunglasses on and wouldn’t look his son in the eye. And the son tugged his arm but the dad tried to pull away two and three times; and the son said, “Why is it you won’t receive my testimony about Jesus? Why won’t you listen? Why don’t you want to be born again!” And the son saw clearly that his dad’s heart was hardened against the Gospel and that he was a hopeless case. It was nothing he’d done. It was all because the dad was unwilling to submit his heart to Christ as his Lord.

6. DREAM OF A BACKSLIDDEN PENTECOSTAL PASTOR WHO SAYS ITS ALRIGHT TO SPEAK IN TONGUES AND USE THE F-WORD. I dreamed that a backslidden Pentecostal pastor said its alright if a person speaks in tongues and then uses the f-word, because nobody’s perfect. What exactly are people talking about when the phrase “nobody’s perfect” is thrown around? Do we mean that the pursuit of Christian perfection is totally ignored? What about speaking in tongues and serial killing, raping, and molesting women and children? “Nobody’s perfect!” At what point are you going to draw the line man! The Bible. This is why our lives need to be permeated with Bible study; or you can say stupid careless things like, “Speak in tongues and use the f-word, because nobody’s perfect; or how about speak in tongues and look at porn because nobody’s perfect; or speak in tongues and kill someone because nobody’s perfect.” It gets ridiculous real quick. Cheap grace Pentecostal ministry doesn’t make any sense. In the dream I said, “That’s a demon if you speak in tongues and just use the f-word without a care,” but the backslidden pastor said, “I wouldn’t say its a demon but its at least coming from the flesh.” Well enough, both ways grieve the Holy Ghost. James 3:9-12: “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.”

7. DREAM OF PREACHING AGAINST GAY SEX AT A COLLEGE CAMPUS. I was street preaching against gay sex in the Brickyard at NC State. I had a sandwich board on me that said something like, “Sodom and Gomorrah Are Still Under God’s Judgment.” I was preaching about anal sex between men, AIDS, the destruction of Sodom, and gays molesting children. I preached 1 Corinthians 6:9-10. But I noticed there was an Indian guru teaching pluralism and Hinduism with a crowd of 50 or 100 people around him; and nobody listened to me.

8. DREAM OF A SLIPPERY FLOOR IN AN OFFICE BUILDING. I dreamed that a young man was working in a big office building and had a standalone desk like many others. He had a white dress shirt, black slacks, and a black backpack with various things in it. He had a very pretty blonde haired woman manager and he gave her his backpack for some reason. The backpack had a bunch of women’s bra pads in them. I’m guessing that this meant he was something of a playboy and used to collect them as trophies from all the women he had sex with. The young man walked across the white office floor but it was wet with either water…or KY Jelly. He walked across the slick office floor in his bare feet, but there were slippery clear spots that he couldn’t see, and he eventually slipped and fell on a slippery spot. Then another young man slipped and fell. The first young man then almost fell a second and third time. It was the same with lots of the guys in there. God says, “To Me belongeth vengeance and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste” (Deut. 32:35, KJV). Many young men are in this situation, many who start out as Bible believers, but because of all the pretty pagan women in the office, they backslide, they lose their salvations, and they become regular womanizers, philanderers, and playboys. Run away! Pursue remote work, become self-employed, and GET THE HECK OUT of there man! Potiphar’s wife said to Joseph: “‘Come to bed with me!’ But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house” (Gen. 39:12). Good man! Be like that guy.