Dreams, Visions And Experiencing God

When most people think of the word "vision," they think of the type of vision is where God supernaturally encounters an individual for some kingdom purpose. The Bible gives examples of five types of personal visions. They are:

1. Personal Destiny
2. A Commission From God
3. Personal Or Ministry Directions
4. Correction
5. Instruction

In addition to that, God will sometimes give a person a vision when He does inner-healing in the person's life. Offhand, I don't know any Bible examples of inner-healing visions, but it is a common experience that many people have today. As far as I can tell, the Lord really does seem to be doing this. We will spend the next several lessons discussing personal communication -- e.g., visions that God gives because He wants to communicate personally with us.

Visions for Personal Destiny

At times, God speaks personally to His servants to tell them of their destiny and calling. He did this with Abraham in Genesis 15 as a two-part vision. (If fact, it is not uncommon for a person to have a vision and then later on have what seems to be part two or even part three the same vision.)

Let's take a look at Abraham's vision. The first part occurs in verse 1: "After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, 'Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.'" During that vision, Abraham (called to be the father of nations) complained to God because he did not have a single human heir -- no sons of his own. In short, Abraham found that his present circumstances did not match the calling and destiny that God promised to him.

That is a pretty common scenario, isn't it? God will speak something into a person's life and the person will look at their current circumstances and think to themselves, "That simply isn't possible." It is sort of a "crisis of faith" because God tells us one thing, but the "reality" that surrounds us tells us something quite the opposite. You may have experienced that in your own life.

Let me give you a modern-day example from the life of Heidi Baker. She was a burned out missionary who had served in Mozambique for many years and had not seen much by way of converts. She had only planted a few churches in over ten years, and those churches were small and not doing very well. She came home on furlough and decided that she would not go back because her efforts here were futile. She went to Toronto to attend a conference there and God met her at the conference. He told her, via a personal prophecy through Randy Clark, that God is giving her the nation of Mozambique and that she will be able to pray for the sick and see them get healed.

That promise did not match her present-day reality. But God fell on her in a powerful way and remained on her for two or three days. She decided to believe God. At first her circumstances did not line up with God's promise to her. In fact, things got much worse before they got better. She caught a a life-threatening disease and the doctors told her that if she went back to Mozambique it would kill her. She decided to go back anyhow, and I believe she went back in a wheelchair. The orphans she cared for prayed for her, and over a period of several months of soaking in prayer, she was healed. Then the mission society that funded her work cut off the funding because of a disagreement over theology. There were a long series of incidents that came one after another that seemed in direct conflict with the promise that God gave her. If you looked only at the circumstances, the situation seemed pretty hopeless. Heidi was a seeming failure as a missionary. How could she see revival for a whole nation when she could barely handle one little orphanage?

But Luke 1:37 tells us, "With God nothing will be impossible." God gave her a supernatural encounter in Toronto to boost her faith. That is what enabled her to stand firm through all the difficulties. After persevering, she saw the promise become reality. About five or six years ago, nationwide revival began to break out, and thousands of churches were planted to handle all the new converts. In fact, one of their biggest problems is training and raising up pastors for many new churches that spring up as whole villages or communities are saved.

Heidi's encounter was not a vision in the same way that Abraham had. It was the power of God falling on her for days when she went to some renewal meetings in Toronto, accompanied by a personal prophecy from Randy Clark. But the principle is the same as what God did with Abraham in Genesis 15. He made a promise that contradicted Heidi's and Abraham's present day circumstances, then He gave them a supernatural encounter to boost their faith, so that they could believe and receive God's promise.

God seems to do that a lot in Scripture, He gives promises that seem to directly contradict the person's current circumstances, then He brings them to pass over a period of time as the person stands firm in faith. We see this in Abraham's life as he waits all those years for a son. We see it in Joseph's life, where in spent years in slavery and then in prison before stepping into his destiny as a senior official in Egyptian government. We see it in David's life where he is anointed as king and then spends a good number of years running for his life as King Saul tries to assassinate him.

Think in your own life -- has God promised you something that seems impossible? Has He made you promises that contradict your present day reality? Remember that God is in the habit of doing that -- and just like He kept His promise to Abraham, He will keep His promise to you. God will meet you in some way to boost your faith so that you can receive your promise even when the circumstances around you cry out that it is not possible. God loves to do the impossible to show His glory.

Now let's get back to how God met Abraham in this instance. In Genesis 15:5, God told Abraham that he will have so many descendants that it won't be possible to count them all. "Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them. So shall your descendants be." At that point Abraham believed God.

That vision was a pretty powerful encounter with God, where God made Abraham a promise and Abraham received it in faith. You would think God accomplished all that He wanted to accomplish in this vision. But God had more for Abraham, so He gave him follow-up instructions to make a sacrifice in verse 9. The vision ended there and Abraham went and obeyed the command in the vision. Verses 10 and 11 tell us that he prepared the sacrifice and then chased away the vultures that tried to come down to eat it.

Then God continued the vision as a dream (or night vision) in verses 12 to the end of the chapter. Genesis 15:12-13 tells us, "Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. Then He said to Abram: 'Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years..." Then God proceeds to tell Abraham, in great detail, the future of his descendants for the next four hundred plus years. In short, God does not only tell him of his personal destiny (to have a son), but also of the destiny of his descendants for many years to come.

God still speaks His call and destiny into His children's lives today. Sometimes He does this through visions, similar to what Abraham experienced. This is where God speaks directly to the person instead of using a human messenger. I know many people who God met in a vision to tell them of His destiny and plans for them. But at times God will elect to do this through a human messenger instead, through personal prophesy like He did with Heidi Baker. Both ways are equally God speaking His destiny into one of His children's life.