While I obviously feel that Dream Interpretation is a valuable part of the Christian life, I am often asked "Why is it important?" Biblical/Spiritual Dream Interpretation is a gift that the church has long neglected. This has most commonly been due to the fact that Western culture has become very logic driven and often unwilling to believe in something that cannot be seen, heard, felt, tasted or smelled. Yet, the very nature of spiritual things is that they go beyond the boundaries of our natural senses. Dreams and learning to understand their spiritual nature and meanings helps us to begin to break down that wall between the physical and the spiritual realms. When a person begins to value their dreams and learns to interpret the message that God is communicating through them, it helps them to then also more easily accept other valid spiritual experiences that they may have.
The picture language of God has always been a significant part of the way He communicates with His people. The earliest form of the written Hebrew language was pictographic. The colors, shapes and material choices for the temple were designed to provide a picture of God's heavenly realm. Even the parables told by Jesus painted word pictures so people who had ears to hear could better comprehend what He was trying to communicate. Dreams embody this picture language of God and as we learn to understand them, we learn to better understand all of the ways God communicates with His people.
Understanding the metaphorical meaning of the pictures contained in our dreams transcends the boundaries of Dream Interpretation alone and actually goes a long way in helping us to better understand the overall revelatory language of God in itself. As we begin to allow Holy Spirit to communicate the meaning of the symbols in our dreams, we open ourselves up to hear His voice in many other ways. For example, when God calls our attention to a particular color or item of clothing that someone is wearing, a street sign or car tag along the road we are traveling or a particular object or creature in the environment around us, we may come to find he is actually speaking to us in His picture language. This unique way of communicating may allow us to recognize His voice in far more situations than we first realized.
Waking dreams, thoughts and images that flash through our mind can all be interpreted as easily, if not more so, as a dream that we experience while sleeping. This opens the door to one more way that it is possible for us to "hear" God's voice as we journey through life. These daydreams allow us to apply the principles of dream interpretation to our waking life in such a way that we soon come to recognize that God is always speaking to us, if only we are willing to listen.
In short, dreams, and the interpretation of them, are an wonderful way to learn more about how our amazing creator speaks to us. When we experience a dream, it is God speaking directly to us (even though we may need some assistance from others to help us understand what it is that He is saying) and we experience personal revelation that did not have to come through another person as an intermediary. In this way, we can begin to understand the meaning of 1 Corinthians 14:31 when Paul declares that "you can all prophesy . . . so that so that all may learn and be encouraged". We were created with the ability to communicate with our Creator and to hear His voice. While we may have strayed from this understanding and sometimes believe it is only leaders or those who are more "mature" who can truly be revelatory people, dreams bring us back to the reality that each one of us can experience this spiritual reality and each one of us cannot only be encouraged, but be an encouragement.