Guidelines for Recording Your Dreams 1) God loves to speak to us through dreams and visions. In fact, it was the most common way that He spoke to people in the Bible. Just as you would listen attentively when a good friend speaks, listen when our Father speaks. Part of listening to dreams is to write them down. It’s been said that dreams are written in disappearing ink. With this in mind, record each the dream as soon as possible with as much detail as possible. 2) Dreams are most often meant for the person receiving the dream. In some cases, the dream may be for another person. Also, the dream can have more than one application ... one for the dreamer and another for someone else. Ask the Lord to show you who the dream is for ... and write this down. 3) When recording your dream, write anything that the Lord speaks to you concerning it. This is probably a key to correctly interpreting the dream. 4) Record important things that are going on in your life at the time that you have the dream. The Lord may be speaking to you concerning these things. 5) Pray and ask the Lord to provide the interpretation to your dream.

Guidelines for Interpreting Dreams 1) Pray before attempting to interpret any dream. God gives all interpretations ... so you must listen to His voice. 2) Ask the Lord to reveal the general meaning/theme of the dream. Ask the Lord to show you if the dream is literal or symbolic. 3) As you look at symbols in the dream, ask the Lord to show you the meaning of each and how they fit together. Remember, symbols mean different things to different people ... and also mean different things in each dream. For instance, if I were to have a dream about my mother, she may represent: 1) my natural mother, 2) the church, 3) a spiritual mother, or 4) a quality such as love, kindness or nurture. 4) When dreams have an application for someone other than the dreamer (for instance, a person or their church), the dreamer should be encouraged to share this with the other person. If the dream is for a local church body, the dream and interpretation should be sent to both the dreamer and appropriate church leader ... so that both can hear the voice of the Lord through it. 5) We know and prophesy ... and interpret ... in part. Be open to other people providing a “missing” part when interpreting dreams. 6) Dream interpretation is a ministry. You are looking into the soul of a person. Make sure that you “minister” in a godly manner ... with love, respect, gentleness and confidentiality.

Guidelines for Receiving Interpretations 1) Pray over every interpretation. 2) If the interpretation does not bear witness with your spirit or does not minister to you, ask God to bless the interpreter ... and ask Him to reveal truth to you. Do not assault the interpreter! If you feel that you must say something to this brother/sister, please do so privately, not publically. 3) If the interpretation does bear witness and ministers to you, thank God for revealing the meaning of the dream that He gave you. Also, pray and ask God to show you how to apply what He has revealed. 4) We only prophesy ... and interpret ... in part. If more than one person helps to interpret your dream, be gracious to each interpreter. Allow the Lord to “put the parts together” to bring understanding to your dream. 5) Many times, the Lord will speak a continuous message or theme through a series of dreams, visions, scriptures, or words from Himself or other people. Look for related themes among the various ways that God is speaking to you. You may find a larger message when the parts are put together ... much the same way that you’ll be able to read a paragraph when various sentences are joined together.