Are All Dreams From God?

In one of my posts do you dream?, we saw that God is the source of our dreams. He uses dreams as a medium of communication to reveal things to us. However, not all dreams are from God. What I mean is that not all of our dreams are inspired by God. Shocking but it's the truth. And as Jesus said it's our knowledge of the truth that will set us free (John 8:32). So our knowledge and understanding of dreams will help us to properly deal with them.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Ephesians 6:12

As Christians, we are in a constant battle with demonic evil forces whose ultimate goal is to see our destruction. 

Can our dreams be influenced by evil spirits?

Amid thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men,

14 

dread came upon me, and trembling,which made all my bones shake.

15 

A spirit glided past my face;  the hair of my flesh stood up.

16 

It stood still,  but I could not discern its appearance.

A form was before my eyes; there was silence, then I heard a voice:

17 

‘Can mortal man be in the right before[a] God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?

18 

Even in his servants he puts no trust,and his angels he charges with error;

19 

how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like[b] the moth.

Job 4:13-19

Every genuine thing has its counterfeit. Such is dream. The devil, imitating God, uses our dream to accomplish his evil agenda. God made us with the ability to dream. Our dreams are often inspired by God as He reveals to us the works and plans of the enemies. Because we have a spirit, our dreams are a result of what our spirit sees while asleep. However, evil forces can also influence our dreams. It is not everything that we see in a dream that is from God. Like the scripture above, Eliphaz, Job's friend, had a dream which he described and the spirit he saw which brought the message was not a spirit from God. That's why we always have to seek God upon waking up concerning our dreams.

Two (2) characteristics of evil influence dreams.

1. Deceptive dreams

God uses our dreams to reveal truths to us. The devil also, imitating God, uses our dreams to deceive us. There are some dreams we might have and they'll appear as if they're from God due to their nature, but they're not. Many have made some decisions they later regretted because of what they saw and heard in their dreams. Eliphaz's dream in the book of Job shows how one can easily be deceived by an evil spirit in a dream with a message that "appear" to be true. 

Eliphaz was given a message by the spirit he saw which was contrary to the nature and the word of God. But when Eliphaz woke up he believed it, and shared it with Job. By what he saw and heard in his dream, he came into conclusion that Job's suffering was due to his unrighteous and that he's going through that mess because he doesn't have a right standing with God. That obviously was a lie. We all know that Job's suffering was nothing but an attack of Satan to turn him against God. 

So Eliphaz's dream was a deception from Satan, which made him speak lies unto Job. Later, he was rebuked by the Lord concerning his lies. 

 After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.

Job 42:7

     2. Evil attacks in dreams.

When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint,

14 

then you scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions,

15 

so that I would choose strangling and death rather than my bones.

Job 7:13-15

The devil doesn't only attack or torment people physically but does it also in their dreams. Job was physically attacked by Satan, and tormented in his dreams as well. When Job thought to be comforted in his dreams, he said he was scared and terrified in his dreams. We'll make the mistake to think it was God as Job himself thought, but it's not. Job from the beginning of his predicament he thought it was God. He later found out it was the devil. 

A lot of us are attacked on a daily basis by the devil in our dreams. Sometimes you'll sleep and be terrified with evil dreams. You might think it's nothing but these attacks in dreams do manifest. Many lives have been destroyed because of just one dream.

But with God on our side, we are more than conquerors. We've been given the tools to eliminate every evil dreams through the power of prayer in Christ Jesus.