12 | Does God still speak to us through dreams and visions?

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Hi my name is Dean Smith and in this episode, I ask the question does God still speak to us through dreams and visions?

Throughout the Bible we see that God desires often communicated with people through dreams and visions. Of course, many make fun of such notions but it we know it still happens today, because a few years back God spoke to a young girl through a vision and then confirmed it with a miracle.

We are all familiar with dreams and the Bible describes a vision as “waking dream” or a dream that takes place when your eyes are wide open, meaning you are awake.

The utterance of him who hears the words of God, Who sees the vision of the Almighty, Who falls down, with eyes wide open: (Numbers 24:4)

It seems the two are clearly connected. And throughout the Bible, we see that God used both dreams and visions to not only communicate with people, but also to warn them. The ancient Patriarch Joseph not only received dreams telling him he would one day rule over his brothers (Genesis 37:1-11), but he also interpreted dreams given to the Pharaoh that allowed Egypt to prepare itself for a coming drought.

Many of the Old Testament prophets such as Daniel, Ezekiel and Zechariah also received multiple dreams and vision. But just in case, you think dreams and visions are just relegated to the Old Testament, God also spoke to believers through dreams and visions in the New Testament.

Cornelius a gentile man mentioned in the Book of Acts received a vision (Acts 10:1-6), telling him to invite the Apostle Peter to meetings being held at Cornelius’s home. Peter also received a vision that prepared him to accept Cornelius’s invitation (Acts 10:9-15) and when the two connected the Holy Spirit fell upon the gentiles as He did on the Jews on the Day of Pentecost.

As well, the Book of Revelation is essentially a written record of a vision of what would happen in the end times that the Apostle John received while in exile on the island of Patmos (Revelation 9:1-11). In the Old Testament the prophet Joel was also speaking of the end times when he stated God would speak to people through dreams and visions.

“And it shall come to pass afterward That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions.” (Joel 2:28 NKV)

And this is clearly happening in our day, but what shocked me is that I thought this meant God would give dreams and visions to believers, but the Holy Spirit is also giving them to Muslims and this is resulting in hundreds of them becoming Christians.

But there is also the unusual vision or possible dream that was given a nine-year old girl from Texas in 2011. Annabel Wilson Beam was playing with her sisters on a large Cottonwood tree on the property of their family home.

Apparently, Cottonwood trees have a tendency to rot and hollow out but still continue living and standing. While playing on the tree, Annabel broke through the out layer and fell 30’ down the inside of the tree.

Unable to get her out, Annabel’s Christian parents, Kevin and Christy Beam, had to call emergency services who were finally able to pull her out. Fearing a concussion or possibly a broken neck or back, they transported Annabel by helicopter to Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas. After MRI scans revealed she hit her head a few times as she bounced down the tree, doctors could find nothing wrong with Annabel and sent her home. One doctor told quipped:

“I guess someone up there was looking out for her.”

And certainly Someone was, because a few days later things took a bizarre turn when Annabel told her mom, that while she was at the bottom of the tree, she went to heaven and saw Jesus who she described as dark-skinned and wearing a white robe. She also said Christ had a beard like Santa, but then added not really.

Then she told her mom that as she sat at the bottom of the tree awaiting rescue, a small angel stayed with her until emergency crews pulled her out. After hearing these stories, Annabel’s concerned parents took their daughter back to the hospital thinking she was concussed, but CTI and MRI scans showed nothing.

Oh and did I mention that while she was Jesus, the Lord told Annabel that everything would be fine. Now it could be argued that Annabel was just imagining things as she slipped in and out of consciousness, but something happened that suggests she had actually experienced a God-given vision or dream.

Because aside from the fall, Annabel was also a very sick girl, so sick that at times she wished she was dead. She suffered from what is called Intestinal Pseudo-Obstruction Disorder and had been in and out of the hospital since 2008 because of this serious and incurable disorder. It is a very rare condition that basically causes the contractions that move food through our intestinal tract to go out of sync.

As a result, people afflicted by this condition are unable to absorb food. It also causes severe abominable pain, vomiting, constipation, diarrhea and weight loss. And because food is not flowing properly it can also result in malnutrition, infections and muscle deterioration.

It is a miserable painful condition and because of it, Annabel was taking 10 medications a day and was on very restricted diet that involved soft food and fluids. And did I mention that modern medicine had no cure for this affliction?

Now also remember in that vision, Jesus told Annabel that everything was going to be fine. Because within a couple of weeks of plummeting to the bottom of this three-story high Cottonwood tree, Annabel and her parents noticed that the symptoms of this incurable disease had actually stopped.

Unsure of what was going on, Annabel’s parents took their daughter back to the doctor and they discovered that contractions in her intestines were now in sync and working properly. Kevin, Annabel’s dad, said:

‘I can’t explain what happened to her physically while she was in that tree. All I have to go on is the radiological data and the medical records from before and after. The proof is in the pudding. She wasn’t well before and now she is.”

But the doctor didn’t want to rush things just in case. They gradually weaned her off her medication and pain killers. But within a few months, it was obvious that Annabel had been miraculously healed and years later she is completely off her medication and can eat anything she wants. When Jesus said everything was going to be fine, the Lord was talking about more than just Annabel’s fall. So did Annabel receive a genuine vision from God? As we read the Bible, we find that miracles not only brought relief to those who were sick, but Mark adds:

²⁰And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed. (Mark 16:19-20 NASV)

In other words, God used miracle to confirm His word. And we see from Annabel’s story that God is still in the business of speaking to people through visions and dreams and confirming it through signs and wonders.

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