Dreams, visions and revelations
Greg’s got a post up at the Yancey blog: Prayer, does it make a difference. Please check it out.
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The trip to Ternopil wasn’t planned. The servants there asked me to come and help them deal with a “power-play” made by one of the lay-preachers. He wanted to become “head” pastor and, with a group of 8 others, accusations and moves were made to take over the church.
To support the faction’s claims, they appealed to “dreams and revelations”. God had revealed certain information to this small group and this knowledge was presented to the church to the harm of the other party.
While thinking through their strategy, I ran across the words of Paul in 2 Corinthians 12.6: I refrain from [boasting of visions] so that no one may think better of me than what is seen in me or heard from me.
Paul would not bolster his authority by playing the vision card. In fact, he did not want people to think too highly of him at all. Rather, his authority rested on his actions and his words. On life and Gospel.
While visions cannot be verified and dreams cannot be experienced by third parties, actions and words can be clearly seen, and heard, by all. They become the calling card of veritable Christian servants.
March 20th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
Very good insight and discernment. Thank God for blessing you with wisdom and the right word for the moment.
I had a vision once and it was really painful.
March 20th, 2007 at 10:10 pm
I had two strange dreams involving the College Church. They did not happen on the same day or even the same month, but I still remember them. One of them was came up last week. Thanks for sharing that scripture with us, I am not sure if I ever heard that. I know a lot of the Christians on TV will talk about visions they have, mostly for their tv station.
March 20th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
Not that God COULDN’T reveal new insights through visions and not that He DIDN’T do so in Old Testament days, but I tend to believe the Gospel has been revealed already………..”once for all delivered to the saints.” I would never argue with anyone that they haven’t had some spiritual experience that I haven’t had. But if it’s outside what’s already written, we have verbage about that, too…………….”Though we or an angel from heaven preach any other thing”…………….. I do know of people who have had dreams that seemed to be a portent of some coming event. I’ve known about the dreams before the “happening”, and I’ve known when the supposed culmination occurred. My mother was one of those. I myself have never had one of these, and I’m thankful for that! But these dreams I speak of have to do with daily life events, not the kind of thing you refer to.
March 21st, 2007 at 6:45 pm
Well said Brady. One’s vision is blurred if one’s actions don’t match up with living a Christ-like life.