A strange story has emerged out of this year’s Super Bowl game won by the Los Angeles Rams, who defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20.

After the game, the Rams’ outstanding wide-receiver, Cooper Kupp, was named the game’s most valuable player, after catching eight passes for 92 yards, and two touchdowns, including the game-winner.

Cooper, who is an outspoken Christian, had also won the NFL’s most valuable player award earlier this year, as he broke the previous NFL receiving record with 145 catches, 1,947 yards, and 16 touchdowns.

Cooper is, so far, the only player in NFL history to win both awards in the same year.

But there is more to this story.

Sports Spectrum reports that Kupp shared how God told him three years earlier, that not only would his team win the Super Bowl, but when it did, Kupp would also be named the game’s MVP.

But just as mysterious was the way God revealed this prophetic word to the wide receiver. Kupp received this revelation through a ‘vision’ he had while his team was walking off the field after losing to the Patriots in Super Bowl LIII in 2019.

Kupp said this vision was as “clear as day,” adding, that “it was as clear as I can see you guys here right now. Pretty incredible.”

“In 2019 we walked off the field that last time after losing to the Patriots; I wasn’t able to be a part of that thing,” Kupp said. “But I don’t know what it was, there was just this vision God revealed to me that we were going to come back, we were going to be part of a Super Bowl, we were going to win it, and somehow I was going to walk off the field as the MVP of the game.

“I shared that with my wife because I couldn’t tell anyone else obviously what that was,” Kupp added. “But from the moment this postseason started, there was just a belief every game that it was written already. It was written already, and I just got to play free knowing that I got to play from victory, not for victory. I got to play in a place where I was validated not from anything that happened on the field but because of my worth in God and my Father.”

What the Bible tells us about visions

Throughout the Bible, God often spoke to people through dreams and visions (described as ‘waking dreams’ Numbers 24:4). At times, it seems that people also received visions through their dreams (Daniel 2:19; Job 33:15-18).

God not only uses visions and dreams to reveal Himself, as He is doing with Muslims around the world, but the Lord also uses them to speak to people (Numbers 12:6). They were such an important part of Jewish life, that the nation became concerned when people were not receiving visions (1 Samuel 3:1; Proverbs 29:18).

We know in the end times that dreams and visions will be a major part of the package, that will accompany the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all humanity (Joel 2:28).

And because of this connection to the Holy Spirit, I look upon visions and dreams as almost a gift of the Holy Spirit, as they display many similarities to the spiritual gifts that the Apostle Paul outlined in 1 Corinthians 12:7-11.

Visions can be prophetic

While the Apostle Paul talks about the gift of prophecy (1 Corinthians 12:10), similar to what happened to Cooper Kupp, visions can be prophetic telling or warning people what is coming.

The Book of Revelation was a written record of a vision that the Apostle John received of end-times events that would be taking place hundreds of years in the future.

In Luke 1:5-23, Zechariah, who was working as a priest in the Jewish Temple, received a vision that despite their old age, he and his wife Elizabeth would soon conceive a son, John the Baptist.

Visions can function as a word of knowledge

Paul also writes about a word of knowledge (1 Corinthians 12:8) that involves the supernatural revelation that a person receives of events, which previously took place or are currently taking place, that were otherwise unknown.

And we see a similar revelation in a vision that Elisha’s servant received after Aramean soldiers had surrounded their home.

Elisha prayed that his servant’s eyes would be opened, and the young man saw Godly angels and chariots of fire surrounding and protecting both him and Elisha (2 Kings 6:17).

In the Book of Zechariah, the prophet received a vision that showed Satan was bombarding the High priest, Joshua, with condemnation (Zechariah 3:1-2).

In Ezekiel 8:1-13, the prophet received a vision of the pagan rites that the 70 elders of Israel were secretly performing in the Temple. It seemed to have almost involved an out-of-body experience, as he was taken to the temple and witnessed it first hand.

³ He stretched out what looked like a hand and took me by the hair of my head. The Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and in visions of God he took me to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the inner court, where the idol that provokes to jealousy stood. (Ezekiel 8:3 NIV)

Visions and dreams include interpretation

In 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul talks about the gift of speaking in tongues and, as well, the gift of interpretation that provides a revelation of what the tongues meant (1 Corinthians 12:10).

We see a similar interpretation gift connected with dreams and visions. While he was in prison, Joseph was able to successfully interpret the dreams of both the Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker (Genesis 40), which resulted in the Pharaoh consulting Joseph after the Egyptian leader received disturbing dreams (Genesis 42).

Daniel likewise was able to interpret both the visions and dreams that the King of Babylon received (Daniel 2:28-29).

Visions can also discern spirits

The Apostle Paul also speaks of a spiritual gift that allows a person to discern or distinguish spirits (1 Corinthians 12:10). This gift not only allows a person to determine a person’s motivations, but also reveals if demonic spirits are influencing the individual.

In 1 John, the Apostle John admonishes us to test every spirit, because not every spirit is from God, and then he specifically ties this to the prophetic gifting:

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. (1 John 4:1 NASV)

We see a similar discerning of spirits in a vision that the prophet Micaiah received, where he saw that a lying spirit was influencing the prophets who were telling King Ahab that he would be victorious in battle (2 Chronicles 18:15-22).

What we witnessed with Cooper Kupp is not unusual, in fact, as God begins to move, we should expect more of these types of things to be happening.

READ: ‘God Revealed to Me…’: Super Bowl MVP Cooper Kupp’s Stunning Vision God Gave Him 3 Years Ago AND Rams WR Cooper Kupp named Super Bowl MVP: ‘I don’t feel deserving of this. God is just so good’