Welcome to the Upper Room. So glad you made it.
We continue with our meditations in The Book of Daniel as we lead ourselves into The Throne Room. We started Chapter Seven yesterday with an introduction to the Chapter and a look at verse one. We drop in on verse two today. It reads,
"Daniel spoke, saying, “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the Great Sea."
There are typically three types of visions as it relates to having a revelation. The first and most common is a dream or "vision of the night." This is an invasion of the supernatural into the natural sleep process. This is the one we see being referred to here.
This was the same we see Jacob, Solomon, Nebuchadnezzar, Pharoah's servants, Pharoah and Joseph falling into. God appeared to them in the course of the normal process of their sleep. This is common to both prophets and non-prophets, but not guaranteed for all.
The biggest challenge here is its proximity to the normal sleep and dream process. Not all dreams are revelations. A good portion of dreams is simply just that mere natural recall of the day's business or memory recall, and practically meaningless.
The other challenge at this level of revelation is, not all such supernatural interventions are necessarily from God. The devil also interferes in this realm. Just because one gets a seeming revelation through dreams does not mean it is from or of God.
Lastly and close to the statement above is that dreams don't necessarily come with their own interpretations. Interpretation belongs to God. Don't rush into an interpretation. A dream is what it is. The interpretation is of God. Don't force fit it to mean what it does not mean.
The next type of vision is what we call a "Trance" or "vision of the day."
The key thing here is its slight demarcation from the normal dreaming process. The revelation does not come after you go to sleep. The revelation itself puts you to sleep by making you unconscious of the physical realm, while it opens the spiritual realm to you.
Every other thing is the same as in a vision of the night. A trance is a very rare occurrence. Everyone dreams, but not everyone has the vision of the night - a revelatory dream. It is not guaranteed to all, though all can potentially access it.
A trance is yet rarer than a normal revelatory dream. God only allows it in special circumstances. We see the Apostle Peter falling into a trance as he awaited food. We see the same of the Apostle John as he received the book of Revelations.
The third type of vision is the rarest of them all. It is called an open vision. Here there is no sleep at all - whether it be the sleep of the day or night. That is why it is so-called. It involves one being fully awake yet having a vision into the spiritual realm, while still very conscious of the physical realm.
We see this in various angelic appearances, Moses at the burning bush, etc. The vision God chooses to use in communicating His message is at His own discretion. We cannot arm-twist Him in using any particular one.
It also borders on our relationship and intimacy with Him, as He said of Moses that He spoke to him face to face. Not ever having a vision does not make us any less than those who do, nor does it necessarily make them more.
There is a burden that comes with each one. To whom much is given, much is expected. He gives to us according to that which He believes we can handle.
Let's pray.
The Saint.
No comments:
Post a Comment